How data driven design enables a better future for Higher Education

What Does the Future of Higher Education Look Like?

Leaders across higher education are facing growing pressure. Budgets continue to tighten, while expectations from students, staff, and government funders increase year on year. As a result, strategic decisions must now balance value, impact, and long-term direction more carefully than ever.

To build a better future for Higher Education, institutions must move beyond broad ambitions and buzzwords. Instead, they need to root their digital strategies in clear purpose, community insight, and evidence-based design. Without this foundation, even the most well-intentioned plans risk drifting off course.

We would urge that it becomes even more essential to take stock and ask the question:

“What’s the problem you’re trying to solve?”

The Problem: Too Much Activity, Too Little Alignment

Terms like sustainability, user-focused, and mission-aligned are now standard in strategy documents. But as new demands are layered on top of legacy systems, teams struggle to connect action with outcomes.

The result? Lots of movement—but limited progress.

We often ask senior leaders a simple question:

“What’s the problem you’re trying to solve?”

If that answer isn’t clear, or if the activity happening across the organisation doesn’t align with it, then even well-intentioned projects can miss the mark.

The Solution: Data-Driven Design for Strategic Change

Rather than reacting to complexity with more initiatives, we recommend taking a step back and realigning your work with its core purpose. At 6bythree, we help higher education institutions do exactly that—by using a proven, evidence-based process that connects daily activity with strategic outcomes.

Our approach starts with a simple principle:

Effective strategy must be grounded in data, shaped by communities, and focused on real outcomes.

Through structured discovery, service mapping, and collaborative design, we support institutions to:

• Reconnect fragmented workstreams with their strategic goals

• Identify which initiatives are driving value—and which aren’t

• Involve diverse student and staff voices from the very beginning

• Provide clear, measurable evidence for leaders and funders

This enables not just better decision-making, but also stronger engagement across teams who see how their work contributes to a shared future.

What We Heard from Higher Education Leaders

During a recent UCISA London online conference, we facilitated a workshop with senior IT and digital leaders across the sector. The challenges they shared were strikingly consistent—regardless of institution size or focus.

For example, many participants noted that strategy often emerges by piecing together existing projects, rather than starting with a clearly defined outcome. Others reflected that “digital transformation” frequently becomes synonymous with system upgrades, rather than with meaningful organisational change.

There was also a strong desire to involve users more deeply in the design process—but a lack of time, tools, or shared frameworks often made this difficult. And perhaps most importantly, leaders wanted better ways to demonstrate impact—to themselves, their boards, and their wider communities.

These insights reflect what we see across the sector: a need to refocus strategy around problems worth solving—not just technologies to implement.

Building a Better Future: The Five Key Questions

To avoid that trap, we encourage our clients to reflect on five core questions when designing future services:

1. What Strategy Are You Really Supporting?

Is your work clearly aligned with a broader organisational vision? Can each team trace a line from their activity to core goals?

2. Who Are You Designing For?

Have you defined your user communities, and are they meaningfully involved in shaping your plans?

3. What Capabilities Do You Need?

Think beyond systems. What human, technical, and process capabilities must exist to deliver change that lasts?

4. Are Your Services Truly Collaborative?

How are services being designed, delivered, and tested? Are students, academics, and staff co-creators—or just end users?

5. How Will You Sustain It?

What should you outsource? What must you keep in-house? How can you reduce complexity and create more space for innovation?

Don’t Confuse Solutions with Change

A common pitfall we see: projects are framed around implementing a new system, not achieving a new capability.

Real change comes when organisations:

• Define the future they want to create

• Map out the capabilities required to get there

• Design services and digital systems that support those capabilities

• Embed feedback loops and learning cycles across the journey

That’s how you build a better future for Higher Education—not with one-off platforms or five-year plans, but through continuous, collaborative, evidence-driven design.

Our Process in Action

We’ve supported organisations across the education, charity, and public sectors—each facing complexity, legacy constraints, and change fatigue. With the right tools and support, they’ve been able to:

• Increase stakeholder confidence

• Unblock decision-making bottlenecks

• Improve staff engagement and user satisfaction

• Create governance frameworks that support innovation—not stall it

By integrating data, design, and dialogue, we’ve helped them regain momentum—and build capacity for the future.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What does it mean to build a better future for Higher Education?
It means aligning strategy, digital services, and organisational capabilities to better serve students, staff, and wider society.

How does data-driven design help with strategy?
It ensures decisions are grounded in real user insight, measurable outcomes, and continuous feedback.

What’s the first step for universities wanting to change?
Start with discovery: clarify your goals, map your user communities, and assess how current efforts align with long-term strategy.

Want to Build Something Better?

If you’re ready to reconnect your digital plans with your purpose, we’d love to help.

Contact the team at 6bythree to start a conversation about your goals—and how we can help you get there.