Smart Campuses
The next-generation campus
When it comes to technology, today’s university students and faculty are often embracing smarter solutions faster than the campuses on which they study and work. Digitally savvy, they are accustomed to a world where their homes, banks, stores, and sports offer a seamless connectivity that is as much about experience as it is about service.
A look at the next-generation campus
The next-generation campus looks decidedly different from universities and colleges of the past and in many cases, the present. Using technologies that enable frictionless, touchless, and intuitive experiences—driven by a digitally connected community—these smart campuses seize true transformation to provide the level of service their digitally native student body and faculty have come to expect.
To stay competitive, institutions of higher learning must keep pace. Imagine if...answers to a late-night math question were addressed courtesy of a friendly chatbot...Entrance admissions applications were processed in hours, not weeks... Parking systems alerted motorists to nearest open spaces...Connected blackboards allowed professors to quickly share grading assignments with teaching assistants (TAs)...Courses were shared seamlessly from classrooms across the country. These are just a few advancements enabled by a smart campus.
By embracing a smart campus strategy, institutions can help ensure they stay sustainable and relevant, enhancing the experience for students, faculty, administrators, and researchers, as well as for the surrounding community in which they coexist.
Four principles for designing a smart campus
The focal point of a smart campus is to enable innovative practices to modernize the campus experience while leveraging it to drive operational efficiency. The key element is interconnectivity and the benefits that provides. At Deloitte we focus on four key principles in our design to foster a connected and consumer-grade experience for anyone who interacts with the campus.
Who plays, works, lives on a smart campus
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Summary of the benefits of a smart campus
Smart campus implementation can enable the paradigm shift that innovative schools will embark on to transform their institutions to serve the needs of today’s and tomorrow's campuses. It can improve three important factors: experience, efficiency, and education. It can reshape how students study, how they learn, what they learn, and how they interact with an institution. It can be the catalyst for the transformation that will enable campuses to address the future of learning and the future of work while reshaping the campus experience. As needed, it can continue to serve the traditional campus while enabling it to adopt new approaches to serve in a manner that their digital native stakeholders have come to expect. Leveraging the benefits of a smart campus can allow institutions to modernize while remaining sustainable and relevant to the constituents they serve today. Below are some the benefits:
What is a smart campus?
Smart Campus is a term used to describe educational institutions that use next-generation technologies woven seamlessly within a well-architected infrastructure. This enables a "digitally connected” institution that can enhance the campus experience, drives operational efficiency, and provides education in a manner that all can access. It creates proactive interactions to foster positive outcomes. A Smart Campus framework can create a digitally connected institution that:
Deloitte smart campus capability framework
A smart campus is more than a collection of applications, platforms, or infrastructures leveraged in a siloed manner around campuses. It uses next-generation technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, blockchain, facial recognition, smart sensors, and beacons—technologies that are strategically placed to trigger communications, take attendance automatically, derive venue analytics, automate processes, monitor and initiate workflows, and offer many more innovative practices that digital natives are accustomed to.
Smart student
Digital student
Smart housing and dining
Logistics and services provisioning
Smart stadiums
Fan experience and operations
Smart classroom and lab
Next-gen classroom and labs
Smart mobility
Campus mobility and safety
Smart student administration
Student administration
Smart teaching and research
Instructions and research
Smart events
Event logistics and services
Smart operations
Campus and building operations
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Why smart campus?
Imagine if various technological infrastructures and platforms siloed by strategy could seamlessly communicate in a manner that produces positive outcomes for a next-generation campus.
