Adapting Universities for Sustainability Education in Industry 4.0: Channel of Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

The emergence of Industry 4.0, also referred to as the fourth industrial revolution, has entirely transformed how the industry or business functions and evolves. It can be attributed to its broadening focus on automation, decentralization, system integration, cyber-physical systems, etc. Its implementation promises numerous benefits in terms of higher productivity, greater volatility, better control and streamlining of processes, accelerated enterprise growth, sustainable development, etc. Despite the worldwide recognition and realization of Industry 4.0, its holistic adoption is constrained by the requirements of specific skills among the workforce. The personnel are expected to acquire adaptive thinking, cognitive and computational skills, predominantly in the area of information technology, data analytics, etc. Thus, the universities that laid the foundation for future talents or trends in society have to adapt and modernize the existing programs, facilities, and infrastructure. This reshaping of higher education in consonance with the vision of Industry 4.0 possesses its opportunities and challenges. There are, of course, a multitude of factors involved and they need a reasonable assessment to strategically plan this metamorphosis. Therefore, this work aims to explore and analyze the different factors that influence the progression and enactment of Industry 4.0 in universities for sustainable education. For this purpose, a systematic approach based on a questionnaire as well as a SWOT (strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O), and threats (T)) integrated with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is adopted. The questionnaires are administered to university employees and students (or stakeholders) to assess their viewpoint, as well as to estimate the priority values for individual factors to be included in SWOT. The AHP is implemented to quantify the different factors in terms of weights using a pairwise comparison matrix. Finally, the SWOT matrix is established depending on the questionnaire assessment and the AHP weights to figure out stakeholders’ perspectives, in addition to the needed strategic scheme. The SWOT implementation of this research proposes an aggressive approach for universities, where they must make full use of their strengths to take advantage of the emerging opportunities in Industry 4.0. The results also indicate that there are fundamental requirements for universities in Industry 4.0, including effective financial planning, skilled staff, increased industrial partnerships, advanced infrastructure, revised curricula, and insightful workshops. This investigation undoubtedly underlines the importance of practical expertise and the implementation of digital technologies at the university level to empower novices with the requisite skills and a competitive advantage for Industry 4.0.

Teaching Digital Competence and Eco-Responsible Use of Technologies: Development and Validation of a Scale

“…With this paper, it was expected to awaken the sustainable awareness of readers, as well as that of the researchers and educators of different educational levels in everything related to the eco-responsible use of technologies. This is an important aspect because the concept of sustainable education in Spain is not yet sufficiently established in the school curriculum (it is only included in a superficial way) and it is a very necessary question [18,19]. Until now, this term was seen as associated exclusively with the natural and the most basic concept of ecology.…”

“…Therefore, teachers need to be trained to prepare future generations to make an eco-responsible use of technologies that guarantees sustainable development and consequently, the optimal health of the planet. This implies moving towards what has been called sustainable education [18,19].…”

Perceived challenges towards Education 4.0 implementation among academicians: A preliminary analysis

“…On the universities' side, the implementation of Education 4.0 requires effective financial planning, skilled staff, increased industrial partnerships, advanced infrastructure, revised curricula, and insightful workshops. These are important to empower beginners with requisite skills and a competitive advantage for Industry 4.0 (Mian, Salah, Ameen, Moiduddin, & Alkhalefah, 2020). If the needed resources for adoption are not made available, implementation will become a problem since all the elements are important for the improvement of teaching and learning (Muzira and Bondai, 2020).…”

Strategic Management Roadmap: Formulation, Implementation, and Evaluation to Develop Islamic Higher Education Institution

“…Changes in the education service market require university managers to use new approaches and concepts to manage and formulate strategies by taking into account the external and the internal potential of the organization. There are fundamental requirements for higher education in industrial era 4.0, including effective financial planning, skilled staff, enhanced industry partnerships, advanced infrastructure, a revised curriculum, and insightful workshops (Mian et al, 2020). Due to the rapid internationalization, universities face fiercer competitions globally and are required to have greater accountability to society.…”

“…Several studies concern with universities development through various strategies, including developing a management roadmap in the State University of Jordan (Almohtaseb et al, 2019), developing various innovations (Magdaniel et al, 2019), developing information , looking for challenges and opportunities for university management (Mian et al, 2020), and integrating environmental sustainability into the university (Ralph & Stubbs, 2014).…”