Digital transformation in Indian higher educational institutions: a qualitative exploration of administrators' perspectives

The present study aims to understand the factors influencing the digital transformation of various administrative and academic processes in higher educational institutions (HEIs). Furthermore, these factors are mapped to different contexts within the Technological-Organisational-Environmental (TOE) and Technology, Pedagogy, Content Knowledge (TPACK) frameworks. The study takes a qualitative approach comprising in-depth semi-structured interviews. The qualitative data is analysed through a thematic analysis to identify the drivers of digital transformation in HEIs. We identified eleven influencing factors that were categorised under four dimensions of TOE and TPACK frameworks, namely, technological factors, organisational factors, environmental factors and teachers' knowledge related factors. The findings indicate that the digital transformation in administrative processes is primarily influenced by organisational and technological factors, whereas the digital transformation in academic processes is primarily influenced by environmental factors and teachers' knowledge related factors.