Ken Polin

Higher-education institutions are increasingly embracing digital transformation to meet the evolving expectations of students, academics, and administrators. The smart campus paradigm offers a strategic framework for this shift, yet most existing assessment models originate from high-income contexts and remain largely untested in the Global South, where infrastructural and technological conditions differ substantially. This study addresses this gap by evaluating the contextual relevance of a comprehensive smart campus assessment framework at the Papua New Guinea University of Technology (PNGUoT). A questionnaire survey of 278 participants—students and staff—was conducted using a 5-point Likert scale to assess the perceived importance of performance indicators across four key dimensions: Smart Economy, Smart Society, Smart Environment, and Smart Governance. A hybrid methodology combining the Best–Worst Method (BWM) and Public Opinion (PO) data was used to prioritise framework components. The research hypothesises that contextual factors predominantly influence the framework’s relevance in developing countries and asks: To what extent is the smart campus assessment framework relevant and adaptable in the Global South? The study aims to measure the framework’s relevance and identify contextual influences shaping its application. The findings confirm its overall applicability while revealing significant variations in stakeholder priorities, emphasising the need for context-sensitive and adaptable assessment tools. This research contributes to the refinement of smart campus frameworks and supports more inclusive and responsive digital transformation strategies in developing country higher education institutions.

Higher education institutions are increasingly compelled to adapt to the demands of digital transformation. Students expect flexible, personalised, and technology-enhanced learning environments; academics require advanced infrastructure to support teaching and research; and administrators seek efficient, data-driven systems for institutional management. The smart campus paradigm has emerged as a strategic response to these evolving needs, offering a framework for digitally transforming university ecosystems. However, most existing smart campus assessment frameworks have been developed in high-income contexts and remain largely untested in the Global South, where infrastructural, financial, and technological challenges differ significantly. This study addresses this gap by evaluating the contextual relevance of a comprehensive smart campus assessment framework in a developing country setting. Focusing on the Papua New Guinea University of Technology (PNGUoT), the research uses a questionnaire survey of 278 participants to investigate their perspectives on the importance and prioritisation of performance indicators across four key dimensions: smart economy, smart society, smart environment, and smart governance. The findings affirm the overall applicability of the framework while revealing notable variations in stakeholder priorities, emphasising the need for context-sensitive and adaptable assessment tools. The study contributes to the refinement of smart campus frameworks, supporting more inclusive and responsive digital transformation strategies for higher education institutions in the Global South.

The concept of a smart campus is rapidly gaining traction worldwide, driven by the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT), along with the digital transformation of higher education institutions. While numerous initiatives have been undertaken to enhance the capability of smart campus systems to keep pace with AI advancements, there have been few attempts to develop a cohesive conceptual framework for the smart campus, and to date, there has been limited empirical research conducted to validate the framework. This study bridges this gap by providing the first in-depth assessment of a holistic smart campus conceptual framework. The paper uses a Delphi study approach to validate and consolidate a framework for assessing the robustness of the smart campus assessment framework for application in university settings. The framework consists of four domains, 16 categories, and 48 indicators, comprising a total of 68 items that were validated by experts across the globe. Two rounds of structured questionnaires were conducted to achieve consensus on the framework. The first round involved 34 experts from diverse geographic and professional backgrounds in the smart campus field. The second round included 21 of the earlier participants, which was sufficient to determine consensus. In total, seven of the forty-eight indicators were agreed upon after Round 1, increasing to forty-three after Round 2. The results indicate strong agreement among the experts, affirming the framework’s robustness. This study offers an expert-based, interpretive assessment of the development of the smart campus concept, with a particular focus on validating the smart campus framework.

The concept of a smart campus is rapidly gaining traction worldwide, driven by the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) along with the digital transformation of higher education institutions. While numerous initiatives have been undertaken to enhance the capability of smart campus systems to keep pace with AI advancements, there have been few attempts to develop a cohesive conceptual framework for the smart campus and, to date, there has been limited empirical research conducted to validate the framework. This study bridges this gap by providing the first in-depth assessment of a holistic smart campus conceptual framework. The paper uses a Delphi Study approach to validate and consolidate a framework for assessing the robustness of the smart campus assessment framework for application in university settings. The framework consists of four domains, 16 categories, and 48 indicators, comprising a total of 68 items were validated by the experts across the globe. Two rounds of structured questionnaires were conducted to achieve consensus on the framework. The first round involved 34 experts from diverse geographic and professional backgrounds in the smart campus field. The second round included 21 of the earlier participants, which was sufficient to determine consensus. In total seven of the 48 indicators were agreed upon after round 1, increasing to 43 after round 2. The results indicate strong agreement among the experts, affirming the framework’s robustness. This study offers an expert-based, interpretive assessment on the development of the smart campus concept, with a particular focus on validating the smart campus framework.

The emergence of the smart campus approach for university campuses addresses the digital transformation needs of higher education institutions, driven by the increasing capability and popularity of digital technologies like artificial intelligence and the internet of things. While existing research has laid a foundation for conceptualizing smart campuses and developing implementation frameworks, a significant gap remains in understanding how to assess a university campus’s ‘smartness’ effectively. The lack of a robust assessment framework makes it challenging to gauge the effectiveness of smart campus initiatives and identify areas for improvement. This study aims to bridge this research gap by identifying key indicators for evaluating the ‘smartness’ of university campuses. Using a narrative literature review method, the study comprehensively reviews the recent literature on smart campuses, organizational management, and societal applications, focusing on identifying pertinent indicators. By incorporating insights from different domains, the study presents a holistic understanding of the indicators necessary for assessing the ‘smartness’ of university campuses through the proposed smart campus assessment framework. The framework and the insights generated inform researchers and decision-makers in assessing and monitoring the effectiveness of smart campuses.

Smart campus is an emerging concept enabled by digital transformation opportunities in higher education. Smart campuses are often perceived as miniature replicas of smart cities and serve as living labs for smart technology research, development, and adoption, along with their traditional teaching, learning and research functions. There is currently a limited understanding of how the smart campus is conceptualized and practiced. This paper addresses this gap by using a systematic literature review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) approach. The study uses four major domains of the smart campus, i.e., society, economy, environment, and governance, to classify existing research. These domains are each aligned to the central smart campus concepts of digital technology and big data. The analysis found little evidence of a comprehensive real-world application of the smart campus towards addressing all four domains. This highlights the infancy of the current conceptualization and practice. The findings contribute to the development of a new conceptual foundation and research directions for the smart campus notion and informs its practice through a conceptual framework. The findings reported in this paper offer a firm basis for comprehensive smart campus conceptualization, and also provide directions for future research and development of smart campuses.