Supporting Higher Education 4.0 with Blockchain: Critical Analyses of Automation, Data, Digital Currency, and Other Disruptive Applications by Grazyna Paliwoda-Pekosz

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TOWARDS EDUCATION 4.0
Challenges and opportunities
Paweł Konkol and Dariusz Dymek

1.1 Introduction
Nowadays, the higher education sector faces various challenges related to
the social and economic transformation linked with Industry 4.0 and widespread

digitalisation of almost every professional activity and occupation.
Social aspects of the labour market evolution over the recent years have been
associated with new generations entering the workforce (Millennials,
Generation Z, Generation Alpha) combined with rapid development of new
Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) and their impact on
the economy (Bielińska-Dusza & Gierałt, 2021). These factors influence the
higher education sector which must transform in order to adapt to new conditions.

This adaptation should meet the expectations coming from different
stakeholders, including students (as future employees) and employers. These
expectations refer more to specific, sometimes narrow, practical competences

and skills, rather than general, theoretical knowledge.
Technology and innovation can be perceived as an important driver for
transformation in the higher education area whose aim is to ensure high
responsiveness to labour market demands by educating goal-oriented

graduates able to adapt to the rapidly changing requirements and ready

to continuously acquire new knowledge and skills within the lifelong learning
framework (Hong & Ma, 2020). Since digitalisation is accelerating, the
problem of insufficient supply of graduates with relevant digital skills and
competences is observed in different countries. A good illustration of this
problem is data from the European Digital Economy and Society Index
(DESI) which show that only 54% of Europeans aged between 16 and 74 

have at least basic digital skills (European Commission, 2022). This is one
example of indicators which characterises external environment in which
higher education operates and shifts towards Education 4.0. This is an
approach to learning that is related to the fourth industrial revolution and
considers transforming education through advanced digital technology and
automation (Joshi, 2022). Education 4.0 includes a new education shift
aimed at values represented by Industry 4.0 and focuses on adaptive learning
to enable students develop skills needed in the present labour market (Stroe,
2022). This shift is based on the conviction that present employers concentrate

less on conceptual and theoretical knowledge, but rather on how future
employees can adapt and integrate this general knowledge with new technologies,

having capabilities to up-skill, re-skill, and pursue lifelong learning
(Hong & Ma, 2020). Continuous education helps to remain professionally
agile. Looking from the perspective of Industry 4.0 transformation, one of
the challenges to the current workforce and new generations of employees is
the process automation and predictions of its influence on the labour market.

Education offering short and long learning paths helps to limit and
avoid potential risks linked with automation.
The importance of Education 4.0 transformation has also been recognised by

the World Economic Forum which estimates that a global enhancement in students’

collaborative problem-solving capacity to the average level
of today’s top 10 scoring countries should yield an additional $2.54 trillion
in increased productivity to the global economy (World Economic Forum,
2022).
This chapter presents the concept of Education 4.0 in the context of the
changes taking place in society and economy and shows how these changes
affect higher education. Section 1.2 describes the current social and economy

phenomena and the challenges created by the ongoing changes to education.

In response to these challenges, new concepts of functioning in the
area of higher education were developed (described in Section 1.3), supported

by new forms and methods of teaching (Section 1.4). As discussed in
Section 1.5, such an answer would not be possible without new technologies
that increase the scope of activities of educational organisations, thus allowing

them to adapt to changing conditions.
1.2 Education 4.0 ecosystem
1.2.1 Fourth Industrial Revolution and its influence on education
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), often referred to as the Industry
4.0, is a common name for economic and social changes resulting from the
widespread digitisation of production processes and services, the beginning 

Supporting Higher Education 4.0 with Blockchain: Critical Analyses of Automation, Data, Digital Currency, and Other Disruptive Applications by Grazyna Paliwoda-Pekosz