Smarter Universities: a Vision for the Fast Changing Digital Era

In this paper we analyze the current situation of the university education with a particular reference to the European scenario. We observe how pervasive networking and many others enabling technologies are, and how they have been changing the humans life, the knowledge acquisition, and the way work is performed. Universities historically set or follow trends primarily in education but are also involved in management and environmental aspects and the current changes are reflected on how this process should be performed in this fast changing digital era. In a university environment, smart solutions are widely adopted to improve the performance and the quality of life of both teachers and students. Nevertheless, we argue that, while we know that universities are smart, being smart is not enough for a modern university. Universities should be smarter, where for “smarter university” we intend a place where knowledge is shared between teachers, students, and all the stakeholders. In this paper we propose, design and discuss a model of smarter universities. The model is derived from the model designed for the development of smart cities.