Financial pressure, changing student expectations, AI and the need to do more with less were all high on the agenda at Higher Education Transformation 2026.
But after a day of discussions spanning operating models, data, people, estates, financial resilience and technology, one message stood out to the Crimson team:
The sector is moving beyond digital transformation. The challenge now is whole-institution transformation.
That's a significant distinction.
Universities don't experience their biggest challenges in neat functional or technological silos. Financial sustainability can't be separated from operating models. AI can't be separated from data. Digital transformation can't be separated from people and culture. And none of these can be separated from the experience universities ultimately create for their students.
So, after listening to university leaders and transformation specialists throughout the day, here are five lessons that stayed with us.
1. Transformation isn't a programme. It's a capability.
For years, we've talked about transformation as something with a beginning, a programme plan and an eventual end date.
That feels increasingly unrealistic.
Universities are trying to respond to financial pressures, changing student expectations and rapidly developing technologies at the same time. By the time one programme finishes, the environment around it may already have changed.
Alistair Jarvis CBE, Chief Executive of Advance HE, described sustainable transformation as an ongoing institutional capability, while highlighting the importance of leadership, governance and investment in people.
Professor Jon Timmis of Aberystwyth University approached the same challenge from a leadership perspective: understanding the problem you're trying to solve while recognising that the goalposts themselves can move.
For us, the implication is clear.
Universities don't just need to deliver transformation. They need to become better at transforming.
That means developing the leadership, governance, data, skills and organisational confidence to adapt continuously rather than treating every new challenge as another standalone programme.
2. You can't cost-cut your way to transformation
There was no escaping the financial context facing higher education.
But throughout the day, we heard a useful distinction between reducing costs and building genuine financial resilience.
Short-term savings may be necessary. Sustainable transformation, however, means tackling the underlying way the institution operates rather than simply asking people to deliver the same services with fewer resources. Your team's event notes captured this as the danger of getting stuck on a cost-cutting "hamster wheel".
A session on operating models demonstrated what this can look like in practice. The approach combined efficiency targets with wider ambitions to sharpen the student focus, simplify structures, automate repetitive processes, reduce workloads and create clearer priorities. Crucially, the model considered people, culture, processes, technology, systems and data together.
That's a much more interesting transformation question.
Not simply:
Where can we spend less?
But:
How could the university operate better?
Those questions can lead to very different answers.
3. Don't start with AI. Start with the problem.
AI was inevitably a major part of the conversation.
But perhaps the most practical AI lesson we took away from the event was also one of the simplest:
Don't begin by asking, "Where could we use AI?" Begin by asking, "What problem are we trying to solve?"
The discussions advocated establishing the current baseline, defining the outcome you're trying to improve and then assessing whether AI actually delivers measurable value, whether through time saved, increased capacity, quality, experience or better service outcomes.
That might sound obvious, but it's an important discipline when new technology develops as quickly as AI has.
It could mean using AI. It could mean automation. It might require better integration between existing systems. Or it could simply reveal that an unnecessarily complicated process needs redesigning.
Technology creates value when it makes people, processes and services work better.
And if an AI use case doesn't deliver enough value? Universities need to be equally comfortable deciding not to pursue it or stopping it.
4. People and data are the foundations that make change possible
Two topics repeatedly surfaced beneath discussions about technology: people and data.
Neither is as headline-grabbing as the latest AI capability, but both can determine whether transformation actually succeeds.
Trying to introduce more intelligent automation and AI can quickly expose fragmented information, inconsistent data, unclear ownership and permissions. Many of the opportunities universities are now exploring depend on trusted and connected data underneath them.
But better data alone isn't enough.
One of the strongest themes from our team's observations was the human impact of sustained transformation. Staff may already have experienced restructures and previous change programmes. Different people respond to uncertainty at different speeds. And middle managers in particular often have to translate strategic decisions into everyday reality for their teams.
Successful transformation therefore needs clarity and decisive leadership, but also honesty, empathy and repeated communication.
People need to understand what is changing, what isn't, why decisions are being made and, where appropriate, what is still uncertain.
You can implement new technology relatively quickly.
Changing how an organisation works is much harder.
5. Ultimately, judge transformation through the student experience
Universities are complex organisations. Students shouldn't have to experience that complexity.
They don't see the CRM, student record system, integration architecture or departmental boundaries behind an interaction. They experience a journey.
That journey begins long before enrolment and continues through enquiry, application, offer, onboarding, study and beyond. Discussions at the event highlighted how students can disengage at numerous points along that journey, while their expectations of digital experiences are increasingly influenced by the convenient and personalised services they encounter outside higher education.
This was particularly relevant to our own session at the event, which explored how Newcastle University has developed its approach to transformation.
Its work around admissions is a good example of why technology shouldn't be viewed in isolation. Transformation can span processes, automation, data and the experiences of both applicants and staff, with improvements continuing rather than ending when the original project goes live.
It's an important lens through which to view the wider transformation conversation.
A fragmented internal process often creates a fragmented student experience. Conversely, better-connected data, well-designed processes and appropriate automation can make life easier for university teams while creating faster, simpler and more consistent interactions for students. The wider event material similarly positioned connected, trusted data as an enabler of automation, personalisation and a better view of the student journey.
That's when transformation becomes tangible.
Universities don't necessarily need more transformation projects
Perhaps our biggest takeaway from Higher Education Transformation 2026 was that universities don't necessarily need more transformation projects.
They need to become better at transforming.
That means being clearer about the problems they're solving. Making deliberate choices about priorities. Connecting data and processes more effectively. Being realistic about where technology and AI can create value. And recognising the impact that continuous change has on the people expected to deliver it.
Most importantly, transformation needs to translate into better outcomes.
Because transformation shouldn't ultimately be measured by the number of new systems implemented, AI pilots launched or programmes completed.
It should be measured by whether the university works better as a result.
That, for us, was the real lesson from HE Transformation 2026.
Read On
