Implementing Digital Transformation at the University of Petra: Current Status and Future Plans

A university is an institution of higher education that gives degrees and training in several academic fields. It also has a good setting for research. In addition to students, the university has academic and administrative staff that work together inside and outside the campus to achieve the university’s vision, values, and objectives. Hundreds and thousands of educational and administrative operations are available in such an educational environment. In traditional universities, such operations are made by humans on paper documents. On the other hand, high-tech universities have automated their operations and converted them to a digital format, integrating technology into all aspects related to university processes through digital transformation (DX). With the help of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology, big data, and artificial intelligence (AI), DX provides agility and resiliency in operations, increases the user’s experience, reduces the frictions in operations, provides a tool for monitoring and archiving operations, offers accurate data for decision makers, and increases productivity. The COVID-19 pandemic has proven that implementing DX on university campuses is also a survival issue. The current study reviews the automated operations at the University of Petra (UOP) in its various units, departments, and faculties. We also present the future plans for DX at UOP and discuss the results of a survey that was distributed to UOP students to investigate their satisfaction and predictions about several aspects of DX.