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、范围和程度导致主要教育学者将其概念化为一个全球行业(Verger，Lubienski，&Steiner-Khamsi，2016)。此外，使用技术来改变教与学，以及更广泛的大学的深度数字化，导致大学收集和处理史无前例的数字数据。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主要支柱之一(英国政府，2019年)。EdTech公司报告了史无前例的增长。2019年，Coursera成为一家独角兽公司(即一家市值超过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GB的投资。对教育科技的投资正在以令人印象深刻的速度增长，2018年达到163亿美元(ET，2019年)。在EdTech初创公司努力成为“独角兽”并从高等教育中获利的同时，大学也可能会越来越多地寻找新的方式，从它们产生的大量数字数据中获利。到目前为止，对高等教育市场的研究主要集中在服务商品上。然而，数据和数据产品的作用与大宗商品不同。商品一旦使用就会被消费，但数据可以几乎为零的边际成本复制。新的产品和服务可以从数据中创建，并通过订阅费、应用程序或不向用户转让所有权、控制权或复制权的平台实现货币化。此外，数据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，在这些数字高等教育产品和服务的货币化和市场化过程中，有一种新的品质在起作用：‘ASSET化’。我们正在见证一种广泛的变化，从通过市场交换创造价值，到通过拥有和控制资产来获取价值。这一研究项目旨在调查高等教育部门的这些新的价值创造和提取过程，该部门正在将其业务数字化，并在扩大服务费的前提下引入新的数字解决方案。通过引入对资产和经济租金的关注，该项目为理解新兴的高等教育市场及其对高等教育部门的影响提供了一种理论和经验上的变革性方法。高等教育的资产证券化是必然的，因为它的监管涉及法律和技术问题。在任何关于资产的合法和社会公正的安排和分配、资产的所有权和用途的讨论中，审查也是至关重要的。该项目采用了创新性、可比性和参与性的混合方法研究设计。它结合了数字方法、访谈、观察、文件分析、审议焦点小组、与利益攸关方的知识交流和联合制作以及公众咨询。数据分析将包括对投资趋势的定量和定性分析，对投资者、教育科技公司和大学的比较案例研究，以及社会网络分析。首先，它将帮助大学了解正在出现的资产证券化进程，以便它们能够制定保护自己权利的政策和做法。其次，它将帮助企业家找到将伦理和可持续考虑纳入其创新过程的方法。第三，它将在投资者的经济利益和大学的社会功能之间起到调节作用。在这里，它将为政策制定者如何将资产纳入高等教育行业监管提供证据。最后，它将揭示资产证券化可能给高等教育行业带来的潜在形式的不平等。

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.