Of all industries affected by digital convergence, higher education should be at the forefront. By its very nature, it needs to be operating at the cutting edge – both in terms of pedagogy and content. Yet the reality is that digital technology adoption tends to be ad hoc, incremental and inconsistent across higher education. Even within universities where innovation champions demonstrate leadership in the adoption of digital technology – whether additive manufacturing, artificial intelligence or the Metaverse – there has been no universal rethink of higher education itself in responding to what must be recognized as radical change in the way society operates. Instead, the higher education industry struggles with financial viability as student attendance of both in-person and online classes declines and aspects of curriculum become outdated in a digital era. Higher education curriculum is slow to adapt; programs can seem out of date before they are even started and lecturers lack professional development support for working with, and integrating, emerging technology (unless they are specialists).

What is to be done? One option is to embrace digital convergence with a complete rethink of the Higher Education industry – both structurally and in terms of pedagogy. Rethinking for the future is difficult to imagine when considered as incremental change, but with trajectory mapping and Speculative Design (from Transition Research), it is possible to investigate higher education ontology for a digital era. Based on a trajectory mapping of megatrends, developments in digital technology and the changing subject matter landscape, what could higher education look like in ten years from now? Can universities embrace step change that exploits emerging technology, leaning into the worlds of future generations? Based on Speculative Design, this research reframes the higher education industry for 2035, and Transition Research to demonstrate how the industry needs a paradigm shift to meet the needs of future generations and remain both relevant and viable.

Keywords: Metaverse, 2035, innovation, collaboration, curriculum.