Today, higher education and research are fully digitalised. Universities rely on a wide range of platforms and infrastructures in their daily operations — from enterprise software supporting the digitalisation of business processes, learning management systems and EdTech tools shaping teaching and learning, to technologies that support research activities.
Recent expectations suggest that artificial intelligence will significantly transform how knowledge is created and used. However, a large share of technologies used in higher education and research is protected by copyrights and patents. Their owners often argue that higher education is inefficient, inaccessible and unsuccessful in producing employable graduates, presenting technology as the solution to these challenges. According to this perspective, universities require urgent digital disruption — one that only technology providers can deliver. Large technology and AI companies, together with academic publishers, are therefore increasingly seeking to transform research. Alongside the improvements they promise, higher education and research are also viewed as profitable sectors, as collecting, monetising and generating profit from data and content produced within universities has become common practice.
These developments — the growing involvement of technology and AI companies in higher education and research, as well as the monetisation of vast amounts of data created by members of the academic and research community — will be discussed by Janja Komljenovic, Ph.D., from the University of Edinburgh. The invited lecture “The Business of Educational and Research Technology: Who Owns It and Why It Matters” will take place on the second day of the Srce DEI 2026 conference at 9:45.
The Srce DEI 2026 conference will be held on 28 and 29 April 2026 at the University of Zagreb. The University of Zagreb is once again co-organising the conference.
