DOI: 10.1002/sres.

2702

RESEARCH PAPER

Education supply chain in the era of Industry 4.0

Ling Li

Department of IT and Decision Sciences,

Old Dominion University, Norfolk,
Virginia, USA
Correspondence
Ling Li, Department of IT and Decision
Sciences, Old Dominion University,
Norfolk, VA 23529, USA.
Email: lli@odu.edu
Abstract
To date, there is a very limited literature on the use of systems ideas and
methodologies as a basis for developing curriculum or courses. To fill the gap,
this study has made several contributions by employing systems theory and
thinking in analysing issues related to higher education. Industry 4.0 is
reshaping the future of education, which opens up our vision and makes us to
consider what knowledge and skills students should possess after they have
graduated from college, when to accelerate workforce reskilling and what is
the building blocks and connections of education supply chain. In this study, it
is the first time the concept of ‘education supply chain’ is proposed and coined.
Furthermore, our research has led us to view educational systems and
configurations, such as international mobility and transnationalization, as
outcomes of enduring power related to industrial revolutions. Finally, a curric-
ulum structure based on system thinking is proposed. We engage our inquiry
with transformations that are happening around higher education and position
our research on the benefits of sharing of global intellectual resource and top
talents through transnational mobility and education joint ventures in the
context of Industry 4.0.

KEYWORDS
digital library, education, education supply chain, industrial revolution, Industry 4.0, liberal arts
education, social mobility, systems thinking, talent supply chain

1 | INTRODUCTION Najam, 2018) and among thousands researchers who

In 2013, the German government and a group of
government consultants proposed 10 primary projects as
pillars of Germany's High-Tech Strategy 2020 Action
Plan. Among them, the Industry 4.0 plan was identified
as the most promising endeavour for Germany to estab-
lish itself as a leader of digital integrated industrial sup-
ply chain (Xu, Xu, & Li, 2018). Soon after the
announcement of Industry 4.0 plan, the concept of digiti-
zation of manufacturing, which has been viewed as a rep-
resentation of the fourth industry revolution was widely
discussed at venues such as the World Economic Forum
at Davos in 2019, at forums on advancing education
curriculum within education leaders (Gleason, 2018b;
published their papers on Industry 4.0 in the past 5 years.
These initiatives have opened up our vision and made us
to ponder how Industry 4.0 will shape the future of
education, what knowledge and skills students should
possess after they have graduated from college, when to
accelerate workforce reskilling and what is the building
blocks and connections of education supply chain. A full
exposition of education supply chain in the era of Indus-
try 4.0 has been unfolded.
In this study, it is the first time the concept of ‘educa-
tion supply chain’ is proposed and coined. We hope this
concept will enrich the literature on the relationship
between higher education and industry 4.0 and contrib-
ute to the paradigm shifting resulted from implementing

Syst Res Behav Sci. 2020;37:579–592. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/sres © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 579
580
Industry 4.0. Like a supply chain which is a network
between a company and its suppliers to produce and
distribute a specific product from a point of origin to the
point of consumption, an education supply chain repre-
sents the networks and steps of interconnected skill
acquisition, knowledge transfer and stakeholders that
engage in educating and training people from the begin-
ning of one's life to becoming a contributor to the well-
being of the society and economic development of the
nation. University and society invest in education supply
chains, so they can train talents and future workforce to
remain competitive in the global business landscape.
As depicted in Figure 1, education supply chain is a
process that includes different activities, people, entities,
information and resources. The current version of educa-
tion supply chain that is proposed in this study encom-
passes all activities in educating people and enabling
them to fulfil their lifelong dream and contribute to the
mankind. These activities are related to the flow and
transformation of education from the infant and
preschool stage to the full career milestone, as well as the
associated flows for intellectual resource, financial
resources, natural resources, physical resource and ser-
vice. There are roughly five stages in an education supply
chain: the infant and preschool stage, the K-12 (elemen-
tary and middle school) stage, the college/university
stage, the graduate school stage and lifelong learning.
The interrelationship in an education supply chain is
connected by social and business activities.
Human society has experienced agriculture transition
to industrial revolution and to digital revolution. An
intensified commitment to large-scale higher education
across the world has resulted in increasing rates of partic-
ipation in higher education. For example, in the United
States, the fraction of the population with some access to
higher education has risen from 4% in 1900 to nearly 70%
in 2000. The increasing diversity within student
populations is also remarkable, with a 30% rise in
LI
enrollments in underrepresented groups, which accounts
for 38% of US college enrollments (Penprase, 2018).
While many educational organizations and individ-
uals might still be wondering about how Industry 4.0
could impact our education system and course delivery
approaches in the era of Industry 4.0, some are
implementing changes today and preparing for a future,
when smart factories, artificial intelligence (AI), cyber-
physical systems can connect their business globally via
cloud computing. In this study, we focus our discussion
on higher education. The following sections cover several
key elements that contribute to the education supply
chain concept. They include industrial revolutions and
higher education, social mobility versus social class and
building things versus building people. Finally, sugges-
tion for advancing education supply chain curriculum in
the era of Industry 4.0 is outlined.
2 | INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONS
AND HIG HER EDUCATION
The mankind has experienced and benefited from three
industrial revolutions and now is on the way to imple-
ment a new one which is called Industry 4.0. Up till
today, there may still be short of a unanimous consensus
of equating Industry 4.0 to the fourth industrial
revolution. Some authors argue that we are still in the
third industry revolution (Rifkin, 2011). Industry 4.0 is a
significant transformation to the digitization of
manufacturing and creating a cyber-physical system. This
transition is so compelling that it is inevitable to have a
significant impact on higher education which trains
talents, spearheads scientific innovation, disseminates
knowledge and educates the future workforce.
In this study, we have used information and data
from several world's largest economies to illustrate our
discussion on the interrelationship between industrial
F I G U R E 1 Interactions in an
education supply chain [Colour figure
can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.
com]
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TABLE 1 Universities and industrial revolution

Impact of industrial revolution on

Year/time Establishment of university university
12th century University first established in Italy and
France
1636 Harvard University was founded The first industrial revolution, around
1760–1820. Primary technologies: coal
energy and steam engine, steam
printing, manufacturing factory, and
trains and railroads
1693 The College of William and Mary was
founded
1825 The University of Virginia was founded
1862 Land grant universities were The second industrial revolution started
established in the late 19th century. Primary
technologies: civil and electrical
engineering, natural gas and oil, and
automobiles and highways
1900–1944 College Entrance Examination Board
was formed
Post-1944
1944 GI Bill
1947 Community colleges opened
1972 The Basic Educational Opportunities The third industrial revolution started
Grants (BEOG) program in the 70s of the 20th century
Primary technologies: digital
technology, renewable energy, and
large vessels and container boxes
The 21st century
Post-2000 Connection between a college degree The fourth industrial revolution or
and employment Industry 4.0 unfold over the 21st
century; digital transformation

revolutions and the evolution of higher education. The
evolvement of US public and private universities and
industrial revolutions are moving forward hand in hand.
Education and learning, knowledge creation, innovation
and globalization are our vision and goals in the past
250 years since the introduction of the first industrial rev-
olution. Table 1 provides a chronical presentation of the
establishment of university and the impact of industrial
revolutions on university and in return, the contributions
of universities made to industrial revolution. The United
States is known for being the home of the world's best
universities and an incubator for training entrepreneurs
in the second and third industrial revolutions. The
progressive history of US universities shows that our
effort is to ensure access to higher education, encourage
social mobility that unlocks barriers to move upward,
create knowledge, contribute to the economic develop-
ment and train responsible citizens. The earliest universi-
ties were established in Italy and France at the end of the
12th century. The goal of the earliest higher education
institutions was to teach theology and train clergyman.1
Following the European model, Harvard University
was the first college founded in the United States in 1636
(Thelin, 2019). To a large degree in the early days, Har-
vard education focused on theology. It took more than
55 years for the second university to be established in the
United States; in 1693, the College of William and Mary
was founded. It was an Anglican institution and required
students to be members of the Church of England.
2.1 | The first industrial revolution
The first industrial revolution which was recorded in the
period from about 1760 to 1820 was the transition to new
1
Encyclopedia Britannic, https://www.britannica.com/topic/university.
Accessed May 10, 2020.
582
manufacturing processes in Europe and the United
States. The three noticeable key new innovations in the
first industrial revolution were (1) new sources of energy
that powers economic activity; (2) new logistics and
transportation modes that efficiently move economic
activities; and (3) new communication technologies that
efficiently manage communication of economic, social
and political activities (Rifkin, 2011). During the first
industrial revolution, coal was a new energy. It was used
to power steam engine, and the engine was put on train,
which as a new transportation mode helped open up the
world markets. Steam-printed papers were invented and
speeded up our ability to communicate with people
around world. When new energy, new transportation
modes and new communication technologies get together
to move our economy forward, the world and our society
had been transformed. The existing paradigm has been
shifted (Li, 2018).
The use of steam power kindled the invention of the
industrial cylinder press in the early 1800s. It allowed all
types of written texts, Gothic tales, intellectual periodi-
cals, domestic magazines and drawings to be printed
quickly and cheaply (Taunton, 2010). Books and newspa-
pers were mass produced and distributed. This new com-
munication technology is a big leap forward to provide
one of the most important resources to the university,
which is the book. Steam printing has made books and
texts affordable and accessible. The industrial printing
press was one of the most influential inventions of the
industrial revolution. It enabled innovations to be spread
beyond the boundary of regions and countries.
In the 19th century, books and publications reached
broader audiences than ever before, across the social
scale and beyond the limit of national borders via train,
railways and new roads. In 1825, the University of Vir-
ginia opened. This is one of the first measures to intro-
duce social mobility. The third president of the United
States, Thomas Jefferson, tackled the issue of education.
He wanted to move higher education away from the reli-
gious ties and advocated to have higher education be paid
for by the general public so that students who were less
wealthy could have access to higher education.
In the 19th century, although commerce is becoming
an increasingly large part of the American economy,
there are only a handful of business-specific courses
offered by the US colleges. At this point, business profes-
sions were only got on-the-job training. People took a
short course in bookkeeping or business correspondence
and then went to work. Today, business is the largest
field of study in college, it is estimated that about 20% of
all degrees awarded are in business fields.
In 1862, The Land-Grant Act was signed into law by
President Abraham Lincoln in the United States. This act
LI
provided grants of land to finance the establishment of
colleges and universities specializing in agriculture and
mechanic arts, which were core technologies in the first
industrial revolution. So ‘A&M’ colleges were founded.
The curriculum of college education responded to the
needs of the first industrial revolution. Liberal arts,
library science, architecture, anthropology and so forth
were new majors at the time.
2.2 | The second industrial revolution
The second industrial revolution witnessed the unprece-
dented scale of production and assembly lines. We extend
the concept of three key technologies here, (1) natural
gas and oil are the new source of energy; (2) passenger
cars and highways are the new logistics and transporta-
tion modes; and (3) telephone and telegram are the new
communication technologies. Henry Ford leveraged
assembly line technology, which was invented with the
intensive use of electrical power to produce a large vol-
ume of standardized products with division of labor and
specialized skills at a low unit cost. University educated a
large portion of middle-class income families who were
able to work on well-paid manufacturing jobs and could
afford the products that came out of the assembly line.
Economic prosperity was created (Li, 2018).
Once again, universities responded to the needs of
economic development resulted from the second indus-
trial revolution. Programs such as mechanical engineer-
ing and electrical engineering were founded. These
majors are the drivers of manufacturing industry. Large
quantity of manufactured goods needed to be distributed.
At the same time, large quantity of raw materials from
different parts of the world needed to be purchased.
Many universities added business education to their
offerings and established business schools.
The period between the two world wars is 1920–1944.
During this time, university played a proactive role in the
education supply chain. College attendance increased
fivefolds, from 250,000 to 1.3 million (Thelin, 2019).
Though more young Americans went to college during
this period, college degrees were not primary require-
ment to the job market. Most occupations were not con-
nected to academic credentials. World War II
dramatically changed the landscape of higher education
in America. The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944,
which is known as the GI Bill of Rights, was passed. The
1944 GI Bill2 provided financial assistance to veterans to
receive higher education. By 1950, over two million vets
2
https://www.benefits.va.gov/gibill/history.asp. Accessed May 10, 2020.
LI
benefitted from the program. The college enrollment
zoomed up.
Community colleges were officially recognized in
1947, when President's Commission on Higher Education
(also known as the Truman Commission) suggested the
name ‘community college’ be applied to the institution
designed to serve chiefly local community educational
needs (Community Colleges, 2020). Community colleges
are usually within the commuting distance of students
and have been established to meet the increasing demand
for higher education among the World War II generation
and their families. Community colleges add a link to the
education supply chain. To make college more accessible
to low income students. The Pell Grant was established
in 1965 for students who need financial resource to pay
for college.
2.3 | The third industrial revolution
In the second half of the 20th century, computer technol-
ogy, information technology and the widespread digitali-
zation accelerated the speed of the digital revolution
which is recognized as the third industrial revolution.
The new digital technology removed the gap of time
zones and enable businesses to communicate via email or
fax 24 h a day and 7 days a week. Meanwhile, in the mid
of 1950s, large container box was invented to distribute
products in a standardized package at a very low shipping
rate. This new shipping mode is then connected to high-
ways and railways. Many containers are taken from ships
and placed on the back of trains and trucks to be distrib-
uted. Globalization is prompted.
Information technology and the Internet became a
new communication technology. New logistics modes,
such as automated transportation tools, container boxes
and meg vessels that can carry 20,000 TEU boxes in one
trip, were invented. Green energy, such as solar energy,
is a new form of renewable power. These inventions are
the drivers of today's global supply chain.
Paired with the global supply chain is the flourish of
education supply chain. Computer science and computer
engineering majors were created at universities. In the last
quarter of the 20th century, many business schools added
supply chain programs. Once again, universities adjusted
their curriculum to train talents and conduct research to
be active participants of the third industrial revolution.
2.4 | The fourth industrial revolution
The fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0 was
unfolded over the 21st century. This new venture was
583
characterized by the fusion of cyber-physical systems, the
Internet, the Internet of Things, industrial integration
(Xu, Cai, Zhao, & Ge, 2016), industrial information
integration (Xu, 2016; Xu, 2020) as well as the growing
utilization of AI, cloud computing, robotics, 3D printing,
data science and advanced wireless technologies
(Xu et al., 2018). It has ushered in a new era of economic
development. Many professors, scientists, educators and
university administrators have noted the impact of the
new technologies on the global economy and advocated
the role that university should play on providing measur-
able roles on innovation, productivity and social
well-being.
3 | SOCIAL MOBILITY VERSUS
SOCIAL CLASS
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, social mobility
involves movement of individuals, families or groups
through a system of social hierarchy or stratification. If
such mobility involves a change in position, especially in
occupation, but no change in social class, it is called ‘hor-
izontal mobility.’ … If, however, the move involves a
change in social class, it is called ‘vertical mobility’ and
involves either ‘upward mobility’ or ‘downward mobil-
ity’.3 Social mobility and intellectual capital transmission
play an important role for the chances of social success in
both Western and Eastern societies.
After the first three industrial revolutions, the new
curricula and the proliferation of 2-year colleges, univer-
sities and higher educational institutions enabled the
technical and managerial capacity to support the massive
expansion of the economy and manufacturing. Education
as a supply chain has provided the society with intellec-
tual capital, educated labor force, insightful managers
and visionary leaders. US higher education has advanced
through the industrial revolutions. These improvements
included a commitment to broader representation within
higher education to ensure that education supply chain
works side by side with industrial revolutions to provide
intellectual resources needed by the society and eco-
nomic development.
Soon after the first industrial revolution, women were
admitted to universities to study the subjects such as law
and medicine along with their male counterparts. It took
more than a century before women rose to account for
half of the enrollment at college in the United States. In
the early 20th century, there were serious limitations in
women's educational opportunities and career prospects.
3
Encyclopaedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/social-
mobility. Accessed May 10, 2020.
584
Harvard Law School did not accept women till 1950 and
graduated the first cohort of female students as part of
the class of 1953 (Fleischer, 1953). Sandra O'Connor, the
first woman in the US history to serve on the Supreme
Court, was unable to find employment in a law firm after
she graduated from Stanford University Law School in
1952. In the early 20th century, the Department of Archi-
tecture at University of Pennsylvania did not accept
women students at all. Phyllis Whei-Yin Lin, the first
female modern architect in China, was not admitted
to the Department of Architecture at University of
Pennsylvania because she was a woman. Later, she
studied at the School of Fine Arts at University of
Pennsylvania. After she went back to China, Ms. Lin
helped to establish the Architectural Department of
Northeastern University in Shenyang, designed a railroad
station in Jilin and was the lead designer of the National
Emblem of the People's Republic of China, as well as the
monument to the people's heroes in Tiananmen Square
(Slotnik, 2018). She lived and studied in China and
abroad and grew up to be an open-minded intellectual
when much of Chinese society was constrained by
traditions. The life experience of the first female Supreme
Court justice in the United States and the first female
modern architect in China represent the mobility of
women and their role in the society. Now, education is
within reach for more women than ever.
When President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed GI Bill
in 1944, he sparked a national revolution in the idea of
university. The significance of GI Bill is to ensure access
to higher education and to pave the way for veterans to
resuming a normal life after they returned from World
War II (McGuire, 2020). The federal government funded
the college aspirations of millions of Americans and
unlock the barriers for those young men and women to
realize their American Dream. Instead of viewing college
education as an avenue to be upstaged to the leisure
class, higher education came to be recognized as an
essential driver of economic development for both the
nation and individuals.
According to the college board, a Pell Grant is money
the government provides for students who need it to pay
for college. Grants, unlike loans, do not have to be repaid.
Eligible students receive a specified amount each year
under this program. About one-third of undergraduate
students in the U.S. received a Pell Grant in 2015–2016.
The amount of the grant depends on a student's financial
need and other factors, including the amount of time he
or she attends college.4
4
https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/grants-and-
scholarships/what-is-a-pell-grant. Accessed May 10, 2020
LI
Prior to the Civil War in the United States, blacks
were generally denied admission to traditionally white
higher education institutions (Thelin, 2019). As a result,
historical black colleges and universities became the
dominant means for providing postsecondary education
to African American young men and women. The Civil
Rights Act of 1964 provided a mechanism for ensuring
equal opportunity for African American students to
study in an integrated educational environment.
Students who are from a wide range of cultural and
socioeconomic backgrounds are able to find their
exposure to a broader range of individuals and their
cultures particularly valuable (US Department of
Education, 1991). Social class has been purged and social
mobility has been promoted.
Given the changes made by globalization, more and
more students are pursuing their studies abroad. Interna-
tional students become a critical component of the educa-
tion supply chain. These students bring with them their
life experiences, culture, learning styles and history. Since
the beginning of 21st century, with the rapid develop-
ment of global economy and fast increase of family
income, international students have more choices when
they plan to study abroad. Consequently, the mobility
pattern of international student's flow changes notice-
ably. United States has been the top destination of
international students owning to its high-quality higher
education programs (Adnett, 2010; Zong &
Batalova, 2018). Based on the data from the Institute of
International Education (IIE), Figure 2 provides the
enrollment numbers and trends of international students
from 1999 to 2019.
Between 1999 and 2005, the number of international
students increased, but the trend remained stable. In the
period of 2005 to 2017, US universities greatly increased
their enrollment of international students to get financial
benefit to support many university activities. In academic
year 2016–2017, there were more than 1.2 million
international students studied in the United States.
After 2017, international student enrollment started
to decrease due to unstable political environment
(Figure 2).
Many international students have had their first
college degree and some even have had their master's
degree in their home and native countries. The US
universities and other developed countries are able to
attract and capitalize intellectual recourses from other
countries and reap the cream and benefits of other coun-
tries' investment in K-12 education to advance their
research and development agenda and speed up their
innovation of new technology. The ‘take and adapt’
strategy in global education supply chain has contributed
to the advancement of industrial revolutions. About 23%
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F I G U R E 2 International students in US
universities5 [Colour figure can be viewed at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]
(21 of 91 companies) of US billion-dollar startup compa-
nies had a founder who was once an international
student in the United States (Anderson, 2018). Combin-
ing the knowledge that they acquired at their native
countries with higher education they received in the
United States, international students translated their
innovative ideas to launch startup companies and have
created an average of more than 1,400 jobs per company.
The collected value of $96 billion of these startups equals
to the market capitalization of the companies listed on
the stock markets of Portugal.
A recent report published by the Association of Inter-
national Educators (NAFSA, 2019) shows that the inter-
national students studying at US-based educational
institutions have contributed about $41 billion to the US
economy and have helped to create more than 450,000
jobs. Canada, another big destination of international
students, is benefiting in a similar way. According to the
figures presented in the report of Canada's international
education strategy, Canada's GDP in 2018 benefited near
$21.6 billion from international students, and they have
also supported about 170,000 jobs (International Educa-
tion Canada, 2019).
In addition to contributing to the economic advance-
ment of developed countries, these international students
have played an important role in the economic, social,
cultural and political development of their home and
host countries. For instance, after studying a sample of
150 international students in a Malaysian university,
Hassan, Othman, Sabudin, Mohaideen and Hidthir (2018)
concluded that international students have contributed
to the local industries such as clothing and footwear, food
and beverage and telecommunication. In addition to
5
Data source: Institute of International Education (IIE), ‘International
Student Enrollment Trends, 1999/2000–2018/2019,’ ‘Open Doors: Report
on International Educational exchange’ (Washington, DC: IIE, 2019).
Accessed May 10, 2020
585
economic and financial benefits, students with interna-
tional education experience have helped developing
countries to improve the quality of their educational
system.
One of the largest ripples from the third industrial
revolution was the move towards online education.
During 2012 as massive online open courses were
expected to completely displace traditional in-person
higher education and expand access to university
education to millions of previously unserved students
across the world. Online and tech-enhanced teaching
within universities has enabled both research universi-
ties and liberal arts colleges to more efficiently teach
students with diverse backgrounds and to open up
their campuses to a more global community of both
faculty and students (Morris & Naughton, 1999; Tan
et al., 2014). COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the
rate of moving teaching online and perfect the virtual
teaching skills.
Leveraging the power of education supply chain, the
United States has been able to capitalize its diversity of
people, regions and economics, in part due to the
pragmatic and adaptive nature of its educational system.
The world and education supply chain have benefitted
from the avenue of social mobility and intellectual capital
transmission.
4 | BUILDING THINGS VERSUS
BUILDING PEO P LE
Universities have remained steadfastly committed to
inventing educational programs, developing innovative
curricula and creating higher education institutions that
dedicated to the needs and expectations of the society,
people and economic development. College graduates
have devoted their talents to the entrepreneurship and
new product development.
586
Hewlett and Packard (HP) was founded in 1939 by
two Stanford University engineering graduates, William
Hewlett and David Packard. HP was one of first technol-
ogy companies who pioneered the strong relationship
between university and industry. The company produces
digital equipment. Throughout World War II, HP
worked with the Naval Research Laboratory to build
counter-radar technology and advanced artillery shell
fuses.6 In 1972, using advanced integrated-circuit tech-
nology, Hewlett-Packard unveiled the first pocket-sized
calculator, which digitalized accounting process and
retail sales.
Dr An Wang, a computer scientist, inventor and
entrepreneur, who earned his bachelor's degree in com-
munication engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong
University (known as the MIT in China) and PhD in
engineering and applied physics from Harvard
established Wang Laboratories in 1951, that dedicated to
building word processing machines. As an important
contributor to the development of magnetic core
memory, An Wang is a pioneer of office automation
(Lee, 1995). There are more international students who
are innovators and entrepreneurs in the United States.
eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar, a French-born
Iranian-American in 1995 and one of the founders of
PayPal, ‘Max’ Levchyn, is a Ukrainian born American.
The impact of education supply chain is enormous, and
innovations created by these people have changed our
way of life and shifted the existing paradigm.
The transition from building things to educating peo-
ple took place in the late 19th century. Recognizing the
importance of educating people who are the primary
supply of intellectual capital to the society and economic
development, John D. Rockefeller Sr., after making a
fortune through the lucrative oil business, founded the
University of Chicago in 1890, which was committed to
open, rigorous and intense inquiry. William Rainey
Harper, the University's first president, envisioned the
University as a modern research university that would
combine an English-style undergraduate college and a
German-style graduate research institute. The University
of Chicago7 has drawn the most original learning agenda
that enables faculty and students to work together in an
interactive and genuinely multidisciplinary atmosphere.
Students are empowered by their education and have
become leaders and distinguished contributors in virtu-
ally every area of endeavour and won the higher interna-
tional honours in their fields. In 1907, Professor Albert
6 difference.
Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hewlett-
Packard-Company. Accessed May 10, 2020.
7 8
The University of Chicago https://www.uchicago.edu/. Accredited May
10, 2020.
LI
A. Michelson, a Polish-born American, studied at Univer-
sity of Berlin, and the founding chair of the Department
of Physics at the University of Chicago, became the first
American Nobel laureate in any of the sciences. He was
recognized for his breakthrough development in measur-
ing the speed of light.
Universities are a key component of education
supply chain, which can influence the direction of a
country. Numerous China's top leaders have been edu-
cated in the Western countries. For example, Deng
Xiaoping, the architect of China's economic reform in
1978, spent 6 years in France, and Zhou Enlai, the first
prime minister of the People's Republic of China (PRC),
also spent years in France, going to college. Zhu De,
who studied in a German military school between 1922
and 1926, was the first commander-in-chief of the Chi-
nese People's Liberation Army. Jiang Zeming, the former
president of China (PRC), studied in former Soviet
Union. Integrating the concepts of Marxism and Lenin-
ism, market economy and planned economy that they
learned from Western countries with the philosophy,
culture and history of China, they crafted the blueprint
for China to navigate in an uncharted passage, which is
named as ‘Socialism with Chinese Characteristics’.
China's success of economic reform over the past
40 years has been a constant process of learning from
the West and people who have different heritages. It is a
vivid case study that demonstrates the power of a global
education supply chain.
To build people, education has to be rooted in edu-
cators, students, business and society to achieve a com-
mon goal that is to create the next generation of
knowledge workforce and great leaders. The Association
to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB),8 a
global non-profit association, provides quality assur-
ance, business education intelligence and learning and
development services to over 1,700 member organiza-
tions. In May 2020, there are 874 business colleges and
institutions in 56 countries and territories that have
earned AACSB accreditation. Accredited programs are
from countries such as Brazil, China, India, Indonesia,
Kuwait, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Russia, the United
States, United Arab Emirates, to name a few. As part of
education supply chain, AACSB connects, shares and
inspires innovation and quality throughout the member
network around the world, as well as the business
community. The collective strength of the organization
is founded in diverse perspectives, a global mindset and
a commitment to educating people and making a
AACSB, https://www.aacsb.edu/about/who-we-are. Accredited May
10, 2020.
LI
5 | A SYSTEM DRIVEN
CURRIC ULUM FOR EDUC ATION
SUPPLY CHAIN
We are in an era of Industry 4.0. Rapid advances in
industrialization and digitalization have spurred tremen-
dous progress in developing the next generation of
manufacturing technology, including cyber-physical sys-
tems, Internet of Things, 3D printing, AI and machine
learning. Earlier industrial revolutions have prioritized
raw materials such as coal needed to fuel factories, oil
that needed to power automobiles and new transporta-
tion modes such as train to connect cities. All these
efforts have placed a premium on physical resources. The
Industry 4.0 places a premium on human capital and
intellectual resource for innovation. Equipped with
digital technology, students are able to learn in their
home countries with diverse colleagues from different
parts of the world and develop solutions together in
teams to solve problems. Unlike the previous three indus-
trial revolutions which experienced industrial transfor-
mation, this time, it is digital transformation. Higher
education around world is undergoing transition. The
need for higher education to respond to the paradigm
shifting for both positive social impacts and overwhelm-
ing environmental challenge is urgent (Xing, Marwala, &
Marwala, 2018; Gleason, 2018b).
To date, there is a very limited literature on the use of
systems ideas and methodologies as a basis for design of
curriculum or courses (Banathy, 1999; Ison, 1999). To fill
F I G U R E 3 Curricula in the era of
Industry 4.0 [Colour figure can be viewed at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]
587
the gap, this study employs systems theory and thinking
in analysing issues related to higher education. We recog-
nize that higher education institutions have the responsi-
bility to improve and expand the education supply chain
to train the next generation of world leaders and work-
force. The society and the world rely on the power of our
ideas and the openness of our environment to develop,
test and realize these ideas. When university, government
and business organizations become members of the edu-
cation alliance, they are part of a movement united to
improve the quality of education around the world. At
the centre of this movement is a vision of new education
programs, innovative diverse degree options and a variety
of non-degree offerings.
A system driven curriculum in the era of Industry 4.0
is at the heart of human capital development and lifelong
learning (Figure 3). The system concept that consists of
technology, people and organization motivates the crea-
tion of innovative curriculum. Diverse degree and non-
degree options will provide avenues for citizens of the
world to be lifelong learners. The building blocks of the
innovative curricula are delineated below.
• People. Faculty, students, administrators and other
stakeholders are the human resource that participated
in the education process to create and validate knowl-
edge, store knowledge and information and impart
knowledge to students and learners.
• Liberal Arts Education. Universities started from liberal
arts programs. Liberal arts education cultivates a
588
person. In Latin, the word ‘arts’ refers to both the arts
and sciences. In the Middle Ages, liberal arts consisted
of seven subjects: grammar, rhetoric, logic, geometry,
arithmetic, music and astronomy.9 Today, a liberal arts
education spans the arts, humanities, social and natu-
ral sciences (Gleason, 2018b; Lewis, 2018). Historically,
universities existed as institutions for knowledge crea-
tion and dissemination and serve as homes to most
basic sciences, academic journals, books and databases
that communicate knowledge worldwide. Today,
college education has been connected to job entry and
career advancement. The nature of our workforce is
changing. Young people need to be prepared for a
variety of roles in a future that will be transformed by
automation and digitalization. Grounded in strong Lib-
eral Arts Education students will be able to switch
from their first job to the second and jobs that yet to be
created in the Industry 4.0 Era.
• Professional Education. Since Liberal Arts Education is
the foundation of human society, what is the role of
professional schools such as business school, medical
school and law school? The role of professional schools
is to equip our students with the skills and techniques
that they can use to contribute to the economic devel-
opment of the region, the nation and the world. While
Industry 4.0 is progressing, we do not have a complete
picture until we look back in 10 to 20 years from now.
Companies which are adopting digital technologies to
realize Industry 4.0 are coping with how to upskill
their current workforce and where to recruit new
employees with the right skill sets. Diverse degree pro-
grams and non-degree certificates, seminars and short
training courses can prepare our workforce to take on
new job responsibilities made possible by Internet 4.0.
• STEM program. Industry 4.0 carries with it a digital
transformation and abundant opportunities for Sci-
ence, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) pro-
grams. As business and government organizations seek
digital transformation, we need to understand that
digital transformation cannot happen in a vacuum nor
does it conclude merely with implementing new tech-
nologies and hope that machines will operate by them-
selves. Substantial changes to the STEM curriculum
will be required to allow students to develop capacity
in the rapidly emerging areas of data science, big data
analytics, AI, machine learning, robotics, cloud
computing, data management and even nanomaterials.
The US National Education Association (NEA), a
founding member of the Partnership for 21st Century,
is a viable advocator who encourages schools, districts
9 10
Liberal Arts Education, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_arts_
education#cite_note-1. Accessed May 10, 2020.
LI
and states to infuse technology into education and pro-
vides tools and resources to facilitate that effort.10 The
21st century workforce is committed to the 21st cen-
tury technologies and skills. Digital transformation has
launched a global competitiveness pace which has ini-
tiated an instructional paradigm shift for learning and
teaching. World Economic Forum (2016) projected
according to a popular expectation that 65% of children
who entering primary school today will ultimately end
up working in completely new job types that have not
been created. Improving and promoting a diverse
curriculum is one of the primary goals of the STEM
program that provides skills, knowledge and attitudes
needed for an entrepreneurial culture (Idin, 2018).
• Digital Library and Digital Resource. Library is the
reservoir of knowledge. After the first industrial revo-
lution, the world saw a massive expansion of the
printed word. This expansion can be attributed to two
key factors: supply and demand. The first factor is
technological development that increased the supply of
printing capacity paired with the new distribution net-
work enabled by improved roads. The second factor is
the creation of many educational institutions and other
social needs that increased the demand for printed
material of various kinds. During the third industrial
revolution, digital library and digital resources became
available. Digital libraries and digital resources, such
as Google.com and Google Scholar, have played a
noticeable role in providing professors, students and
learners with data, information and knowledge via a
variety of media. Digital library and resource provide
timely, high volume and high variety of information
and is handy and accessible. Users can reach the digi-
tal resources at school, from home or even during their
trips at the airport. Digital libraries and resources can
be shared within a consortium and offer more informa-
tion than an individual university is able to acquire
and maintain. The promise is to support diverse degree
programs and non-degree projects through broader,
faster and better information and communication ser-
vices (Marchionini & Maurer, 2019).
• Experiential learning. To support the vision of innova-
tive curriculum in the Era of Industry 4.0, experiential
education serves as an integral part of the curriculum.
Despite full-time placements already being in place in
many universities and colleges, it was essential for the
universities to establish a student-centric effort to pro-
vide hands-on and industry-oriented learning experi-
ence. After students have acquired and created new
knowledge, they need to apply it to real-world
National Education Association http://www.nea.org/home/34888.
htm. Accessed May 10, 2020.
LI
scenarios. Internships are important opportunities to
experience the real world of the workplace while
gaining knowledge and skills through the application
of theories to practical problems. By working in their
chosen field before graduation, students clarify career
goals, gain résumé-building experience and become
stronger candidates for full-time jobs and graduate
schools.
The shift towards more experiential learning and
business engagement will mean that higher education
may be seen increasingly as learning laboratories rather
than as the traditional classroom learning environment.
Their doors may become revolving, with models helping
their alumni successfully respond to the business,
leadership and ethical challenges that emerge over a
career life cycle.
• Education Joint Venture and Transnational Collabora-
tion. Higher education curricula offered in the era of
Industry 4.0 focus on developing learners' high value-
adding skills. An insightful narrative is found in the
Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Education
Strategy Action Plan, which advocates multilateral
cross-border collaboration and education supply chain
joint ventures between universities within the region
and the world to deliver knowledge and skills required
to produce graduates who can navigate in the
uncharted passage of in the era of Industry 4.0
(Yang & Cheng, 2018).
In 2018, Cornell University initiated a transnational
collaboration with Vietnam's largest property developer,
Vingroup, to establish a world-class teaching and
research private university, VinUniversity. This new
higher education institution will include schools of busi-
ness, hospitality and real estate; engineering and technol-
ogy; general education; public health and health services;
nursing; and medicine. Cornell SC Johnson College of
Business not only provides faculty resources across Cor-
nell but also provides support to VinUniversity in the
areas of administration, curriculum development and fac-
ulty recruitment (Kelley, 2018). The goal of this new
university is to offer quality higher education in Vietnam
and educate students who will help Vietnam become a
stronger competitor in Southeast Asia and on the global
stage. VinUniversity began recruiting faculty in spring
2018 and enrol students in the university's inaugural class
in 2020 (Kelley, 2018).
Inaugurated in 2006, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool Univer-
sity (XJTLU) is a transnational collaboration jointly
founded by Xi'an Jiaotong University and the University
of Liverpool. It is the first Sino-British joint venture
589
between research led universities. It is the only one
where all undergraduate students receive a UK and Chi-
nese degree (dual award) from the Chinese Ministry of
Education and from the University of Liverpool
(Educations.com, 2020). XJTLU combines the best of east
and west to offer its students a unique educational experi-
ence that prepares them to be a future leader. XJTLU has
a diverse and talented team of over 400 academic staff,
with 50 nationalities. All degree programs are taught in
English, with a focus on critical thinking and indepen-
dent learning.11 The school is located in Suzhou Indus-
trial Park, an incubator of global innovation, which
provides numerous internship opportunities for students.
XJTLU graduates' ambitions and aspirations take them
all over the world into jobs and further study. Playing a
role of global education supply chain, XJTLU placed 97%
of its first cohort of students in masters or doctorate pro-
grams overseas, among them, 10% was admitted to uni-
versities that were ranked in the world's top 10 (based on
the University Ranking Chart by The Times, 2010). By
January 2011, XJTLU headed the list of Top 10 Sino-
Foreign Cooperative Universities in China.
On 25 September 2016, Jo Johnson, the United
Kingdom's Minister of State for Universities and Science
visited Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou,
Mr. Johnson recognized that XJTLU's performance is an
extraordinary achievement and highlighted the UK's
commitment to international engagement through trans-
national education programs with China (ShanghaiDaily.
com, 2016). This joint venture in higher education
between United Kingdom and China aims at addressing
the challenges in education and training citizens with
global perspectives and equipped with the skills and
cultural understanding that is essential in the era of
Industry 4.0.
Duke University from the United States and the
National University of Singapore (NSU) pioneered an
education joint venture as early as 2005 (Gleason, 2018a).
The Duke–NUS Graduate Medical School (GMS) is a
collaboration between Duke University from the United
States and the National University of Singapore from
Singapore. This academic venture is a strategic priority
rather than a conventional outreach or exchange oppor-
tunity. In sharing the curriculum with Duke–NUS GMS
in Singapore, a variety of new distance learning technolo-
gies have been employed, complemented by a greater
emphasis on team-based problem-solving exercises.
Students become actively engaged with the material and
are challenged by the faculty to develop the critical-
thinking and communication skills that are important for
11
Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University https://www.xjtlu.edu.cn/en/.
Accessed May 10, 2020.
590
future academic careers (Williams et al., 2008). From the
Duke's perspective, this joint venture justifies Duke's
ambition to become an active participant in the globaliza-
tion of biomedical sciences, medical industries and
healthcare. Duke's leaders have crafted strategic goals
that include exposing both faculty and learners to a
greater diversity of cultures, beliefs and practices in the
healthcare arena.
As the result of industrial revolutions, transnational
mobilities, joint venture and connectivity in higher
education are inevitable. With the onset of the Industry
4.0 era, these processes are likely to further accelerate,
intensify and expand. Traveling along the globalization
journey, students, faculty and people from all walks of
life are able to gain a profound understanding of trends,
opportunities and risks in a world that is flat.
• Diverse Degree and Non-Degree Programs. As the world
is experiencing digital transformation in the era of
Industry 4.0, we need to understand that paradigm
shift cannot happen in a vacuum; rather, true digital
transformation has profound implications for human
being and will affect strategy, talent, innovation and
business models. A set of skills needed for the 21st
century is defined by the Partnership for 21st Century
as ‘collaborating, communication, critical thinking and
creativity’.12 Students will be nonroutine problem
solvers, innovative self-developers, systems thinkers
and adaptable communicators.
Today, 4-year college is a prevailing model of higher
education. The Stanford2025 project offers fresh air for
degree program development. The Stanford2025 project a
couple new options that allow students to extend their
education over longer timeframes. One model is the
‘open loop university’ where students can experience
6 years of higher education over their entire adult careers
that provides opportunity for them to blend their learn-
ing with life experience and provide value to the campus
by returning as expert practitioners over several intervals
to recharge with new skills and knowledge. Another
option which is named as axis flip that prioritizes skill
development and competency training over disciplinary
topics. It is hypothesized that by applying these proposed
degree models, students would constantly renew and
extend their knowledge and skills through their careers
(Stanford2025, 2013). Yet new student learning assess-
ment measures and method need to be developed to
gauge the learning outcome.
12
The Partnership for 21st Century http://www.nea.org/home/34888.
htm. Accessed May 10, 2020.
LI
Non-degree options have become part of higher
education curriculum offering. Many universities have
added non-degree certificate programs to their catalogue.
For example, business schools in many countries have
taken the lead in contributing to learning opportunities
for a wide variety of individuals, at different points in
their career life cycles. Fostering greater educational
access requires business schools to accelerate their move
beyond the bounds of traditional degree-based education.
Higher education will need to redefine themselves within
campus, community and talent management systems. As
hubs of learning, universities need to partner with
universities in other countries, industry clusters and orga-
nizations within the public and private sectors. This
approach helps achieve the goal of knowledge creation,
innovation and community-building missions.
The ability to fully harness information from
connected assets and use it to drive informed decisions is
important to the full realization of Industry 4.0, and one
which many organizations may not yet fully be able to
execute in practice.
6 | CONCLUSION
In tandem with the intensification of globalization and
industrial revolutions, higher education has undergone sig-
nificant expansions over the past decades. It is exciting to
live in a time of unprecedented transformations and
unimaginable change. Higher education is in the crossroad
of transformation along with the rest of world
(Najam, 2018). While digital transformation is taking shape
in nearly every organization, paradoxes can be observed
around education supply chain, curricula transformation,
talent readiness and drivers of capital investment. Educa-
tion organizations are largely still finding a path that bal-
ances improving the existing education system with the
opportunities afforded by Industry 4.0 technologies and
new approaches associated with education supply chain.
To date, the emphasis placed on applying systems
thinking to education remains inadequate. As Ison (1999)
pointed out that there is a very limited literature on the
use of systems ideas and methodologies as a basis for
designing curriculum or courses. To fill the gap, this
study has made several contributions by employing sys-
tems theory and thinking in analysing issues related to
higher education. First, we recognize and coined the
importance of education supply chain in the era of Indus-
try 4.0 and coin the idea in the literature the first time.
Second, our research has led us to view educational
systems and configurations, such as international mobil-
ity and transnationalization, as outcomes of enduring
power related to industrial revolutions. Third, social
LI
mobility and social class have been put in the perspective
of inequality and social justice of gender, race, affordabil-
ity and accessibility. Furthermore, a curriculum structure
based on system thinking is proposed. We engage our
inquiry with transformations that are happening around
higher education and position our research on the bene-
fits of sharing of global intellectual resource and top tal-
ents through transnational mobility and education joint
ventures in the context of Industry 4.0.
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