By Tony Lteif, Head of Education EMEA at Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Education has long been a sector in which every penny has had to count. That’s true now more than ever. Public spending on higher education as a share of GDP has fallen by 8% between 2012 and 2018, according to 2021 OECD data. Undergraduates expect high quality and accessible university courses, and educational institutions are faced with the task of meeting these expectations while keeping their bottom lines top of mind.

Delivering exceptional digital learning experiences on a lower budget is now a priority. While meeting these new digital demands without breaking the bank may seem like a daunting task, cloud technology applications in both public and private education have proven that universities can do more with less. Cloud technologies offer a range of benefits for universities looking to digitalise. Beyond that, the cloud can buttress universities’ long-term development.

Building the Lecture Hall 2.0

2022’s students are happy to learn outside the lecture theatre. Recent studies show that 66% of UK undergraduates now want a blend of virtual and in-person teaching formats. Teaching staff also buck the virtual trend. Staff at British universities state they provide better feedback in a virtual format and, moreover, instructors are able to collect digital student feedback in real-time and adjust learning materials accordingly.

Digital classrooms are here to stay. To make the digital dream a reality, students need seamless access to learning materials, student information, and instructor support from anywhere at any time. That requires a durable digital education infrastructure that is simply not offered by on-premises servers.

University College London (UCL) faced this dilemma ahead of the 2020 academic year. 43,000 students and 14,000 staff from over 150 countries were due to log-in to their virtual learning environment (VLE). The on-premises servers which hosted UCL’s VLE could not handle the anticipated volume. One transaction could take 15 seconds to complete, making digital learning highly frustrating for both the students and the university.

UCL worked with Amazon Web Services (AWS) over a ten-week period to scale its systems. Their former systems could only handle 2,500 users at once. UCL wanted all students and staff to be able to depend on the resource.

By working with AWS, UCL cut interaction times from 15 seconds to 350 milliseconds. The shift delivered a more nimble, resilient, and interactive digital classroom. Both staff and students could get back to focusing on teaching and learning.

Fostering transformation against budget expectations

Digital innovation delivers clear results. However, the price tag attached to these innovations can be a barrier for many educational institutions. According to the OECD, higher education in developed nations face declining public investment. Meanwhile, undergraduate cohorts continue to grow in size. With tighter purse strings, flashy new digital tools can understandably seem an unaffordable expense.

But a shift to the cloud doesn’t mean a larger IT budget. That is due to three main factors. First, cloud storage cuts the need for on-premises servers. Universities can reassign personnel and cut operational costs.

Second, the cloud removes excess data storage. Universities can use the amount of storage that is right for them, and scale as needed. On-premises servers always need a data storage surplus. If the server runs out of storage, then systems will crash. As a result, universities who rely on on-premise servers risk wasting budget by buying extra and unused data storage.

With cloud, universities can use exactly the right amount of storage for their needs. They can scale their usage up or down, as demand shifts. What’s more, cash needn’t be sunk into maintaining a storage surplus.

Finally, on-premises servers need maintenance. Servers get particularly expensive in emergencies. With the cloud, universities do not pay for on-premises server maintenance. Instead of increasing costs, the cloud reduces IT spend while delivering a better student experience.

Developing digital autonomy

Lower budgets and more robust VLEs are both compelling arguments for cloud integration. Yet universities must also consider their digital autonomy – whether higher education institutions control their own virtual future. Can they easily scale and grow? Can they offer new digital experiences to students?

2020 demonstrated digital freedom is now essential for organisational continuity. Online teaching was only possible if entities were digitally independent. The University of Bahrain demonstrated how the cloud can enable digital autonomy. The largest educational organisation in the Middle East to shift to the cloud, the University started migrating its services in 2016.

The university experienced a range of benefits, including reduced costs and increased agility. The university’s core applications were optimised, resulting in a 40% performance improvement and in over a 50% performance boost for the university’s homepage. By the time the COVID-19 pandemic hit, staff and students were very familiar with using cloud-based infrastructure to access critical services.

In particular, the university’s student information system was fully integrated into the cloud. Only minimal training had to be done to ensure that students and staff at the university were able to continue tuition. Classes proceeded. Research continued. Through being digitally autonomous, through embracing the cloud, the University of Bahrain was resilient in the face of a global pandemic.

Another example comes from the English-language learning company, EF that successfully expanded its digital autonomy through cloud integration. With 46,500 staff across 116 countries, EF’s operations demanded worldwide data solutions. In collaboration with AWS, EF introduced solutions that enabled agile global operations.

Now, EF’s digital systems rapidly scale in line with user demand. EF can fast-track development of new digital offerings for students. Finally, they are building a big data platform, in partnership with AWS, that will use artificial intelligence to deliver each student a personalised and enhanced learning experience.

For EF, the cloud has given them control of their digital future. They can deliver an enhanced and personalised student experience through responsive digital solutions. Now, EF is in a powerful position to create new offerings for tomorrow’s students.

AWS looks to be an ally for higher education entities seeking to future-proof their teaching. We hope to support universities as they enable young people’s development. With the cloud, universities can deliver peerless teaching and world-class research which benefits societies everywhere.