UU - Universities and Unicorns: building digital assets in the higher education industry

高等教育（HE）部门已经市场化了几十年;但市场化的速度，范围和程度已经导致主要教育学者将其概念化为一个全球产业（Verger，Lubienski和Steiner-Khamsi，2016）。此外，利用技术来改变教学和学习，以及更广泛地对大学进行深刻的数字化，导致大学收集和处理前所未有的数字数据。教育技术（EdTech）公司已成为高等教育行业的主要参与者之一，英国已将EdTech作为其最近国际教育战略的关键支柱之一（HM政府，2019）。EdTech公司正在报告前所未有的增长。2019年，Coursera成为“独角兽”（即价值超过10亿美元的公司），而总部位于英国的FutureLearn通过出售该公司50%的股份获得了5000万英镑的投资。对EdTech的投资正以令人印象深刻的速度增长，2018年达到163亿美元（ET，2019）。虽然EdTech初创公司努力成为“独角兽”并从高等教育中获利，但大学也可能越来越多地寻找从其产生的数字数据财富中获利的新方法。到目前为止，高等教育市场的研究主要集中在服务商品上。然而，数据和数据产品并不像商品那样起作用。商品一旦使用就会被消耗，但数据几乎可以零边际成本复制。新的产品和服务可以从数据中创建，并通过订阅费、应用程序或不将所有权、控制权或复制权转移给用户的平台进行货币化。此外，数据的使用创造了更多的数据，网络效应增加了这些平台的价值。因此，在这些数字HE产品和服务的货币化和市场化中有一个新的质量：“资产化”。我们正在目睹一场广泛的变革，从通过市场交换创造价值，转向通过资产的所有权和控制权提取价值。该研究项目旨在调查高等教育部门的价值创造和提取的新过程，该部门正在对其业务进行数字化，并引入新的数字解决方案，以扩大服务费。通过引入对资产和经济租金的关注，该项目提供了一种理论和经验上的变革方法，以了解新兴的高等教育市场及其对高等教育行业的影响。高等教育的资产化是必然的，因为其监管涉及法律的和技术问题。在任何讨论中，审查资产的合法和社会公正的安排和分配、所有权和使用也至关重要。该项目采用了创新的，比较的，和参与性的混合方法的研究设计。它结合了数字方法，访谈，观察，文件分析，审议焦点小组，与利益相关者的知识交流和共同制作，以及公众咨询。数据分析将包括投资趋势的定量和定性分析，投资者，EdTech公司和大学的比较案例研究，以及社会网络分析。该研究项目的应用是四方面的。首先，它将帮助大学了解资产化的新兴过程，以便他们能够制定保护其权利的政策和实践。第二，它将协助企业家找到将道德和可持续考虑纳入其创新进程的方法。第三，它将在投资者的经济利益和大学的社会功能之间进行调解。在这里，它将为政策制定者提供关于如何将资产纳入高等教育部门监管的证据。最后，它将揭示资产化可能给高等教育部门带来的潜在不平等形式。

The higher education (HE) sector has been marketised for decades; but the speed, scope, and extent of marketisation has led key education scholars to conceptualise it as a global industry (Verger, Lubienski, & Steiner-Khamsi, 2016). Further, the use of technology to transform teaching and learning, as well as the profound digitalisation of universities more broadly, has led universities to collect and process an unprecedented amount of digital data. Education technology (EdTech) companies have become one of the key players in the HE industry and the UK has made EdTech one of its key pillars in its recent international education strategy (HM Government, 2019). EdTech companies are reporting unprecedented growth. In 2019, Coursera became a 'unicorn' (i.e. a company worth over $1 billion), while British-based FutureLearn secured £50 million investment by selling 50% shares of the company. Investment in EdTech is growing at an impressive rate and reached $16.3bn in 2018 (ET, 2019). While EdTech start-up companies strive to become 'unicorns' and profit from HE, so too might universities increasingly look for new ways of profiting from the wealth of digital data they produce. The study of HE markets has so far focused on service-commodities. However, data and data products do not act like commodities. Commodities are consumed once used, but data is reproducible at almost zero marginal cost. New products and services can be created from data and monetised through subscription fees, an app, or a platform that does not transfer ownership, control, or reproduction rights to the user. Furthermore, data use creates yet more data, and the network effects increase the value of these platforms. Therefore, there is a new quality at play in the monetisation and marketisation of these digital HE products and services: 'assetization'. We are witnessing a widespread change from creating value via market exchange towards extracting value via the ownership and control of assets. This research project aims to investigate these new processes of value creation and extraction in an HE sector that is digitalising its operations and introducing new digital solutions premised on the expansion of service fees. By introducing a focus on assets, and economic rents, this project offers a theoretically and empirically transformative approach to understand emerging HE markets and their implications for the HE sector. The assetization of HE is consequential because of the legal and technical implications for its regulation. It is also crucial to examine in any discussion about the legitimate and socially just arrangement and distribution of assets, their ownership, and their uses. The project employs an innovative, comparative, and participatory mixed-methods research design. It combines digital methods, interviews, observation, document analysis, deliberative focus groups, knowledge exchange and co-production with stakeholders, and public consultation. Data analysis will include quantitative and qualitative analysis of investment trends, comparative case studies of investors, EdTech companies and universities, and social network analysis.The application of this research project is fourfold. First, it will help universities understand the emerging processes of assetization so they can develop policies and practices for protecting their rights. Second, it will assist entrepreneurs in finding ways to incorporate ethical and sustainable considerations in their innovation processes. Third, it will mediate between the financial interests of investors and the social function of universities. Here, it will provide evidence for policymakers on how to include assets in HE sector regulation. Finally, it will unpack potential forms of inequality that assetization might bring into the HE sector.