Embedding EdTech: what’s the hold-up?

We recently asked our community a simple but important question: What’s the most significant barrier to using EdTech to foster innovation in higher education?

42% identified ‘siloed systems & strategy’ as the biggest barrier.

This was followed by slow, rigid processes (25%), insufficient funding (17%) and low digital culture buy-in (17%).

The picture is clear: the biggest obstacles aren’t technical. They’re systemic.

???? All hail EdTech

EdTech is often hailed as transformational. It can empower students with entrepreneurial skills, enable academics to experiment with innovative teaching models, and connect universities with industry and society in more agile ways.

In short, EdTech is not just about digital classrooms or tools. It’s about building the capacity of higher education institutions to innovate. So they can prepare entrepreneurial thinkers for the outside world.

But for that vision to be more than talk, the system around EdTech has to change.

???? Silo lows

The top poll result highlights the structural issues within universities and their ecosystems. Too often, EdTech adoption happens in isolated pockets. One faculty invests in tools that aren’t compatible with another. A platform is introduced for short-term needs (like online teaching during the pandemic), but it isn’t embedded into long-term strategies for research or innovation.

Budgets are fragmented, and digital strategies are disconnected from institutional missions. This means pilots never scale. Data isn’t shared across departments. Tools are under-used because there’s no common framework for collaboration. And most critically, students miss out on the chance to experience EdTech.

⚖️ So how did we get here?

Silos are a byproduct of how universities have historically evolved. Faculties often operate independently, with their own priorities, governance, and funding. Incentives for collaboration are weak, and short-term decision-making (for example, adopting tools quickly to solve immediate challenges) often wins out over strategic, long-term planning.

The result is a system where EdTech is ‘bolted on’.

???? Changing from the inside out

If EdTech is to fulfil its promise, we need systemic change. That means:

• Developing institution-wide digital strategies that connect teaching, research, and innovation.
• Building partnerships to align EdTech with the skills Europe’s future workforce will need.
• Embedding entrepreneurial learning directly into the platforms students and staff already use.
• Creating incentives, training, and cultural change programmes so staff and students see EdTech not as an add-on, but as part of how higher education operates.

???? Collaboration is still king

No single institution can achieve this alone. To overcome these barriers, collaboration across the higher education ecosystem is essential.

At the EIT Higher Education Initiative we connect institutions with industry partners to help them move beyond silos and start building the systemic change needed for EdTech to work.

???? To get ahead, we must embed

EdTech has the potential to transform higher education, but only if it is fully baked-in to strategy, culture, and infrastructure.