Impact

Better prepare graduate research students for 4IR.

The goal of this project is to improve Graduate Researchers (GR) to work in Industry 4.0 and provide ethically responsible leadership in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). The aim is to develop an organisational model for ethically responsible implementation of SocioTechnical Systems (STS) in Graduate Research Education (GRE) environments.

STS in Grad. Research

More PhD graduates will continue to work outside the Academy as we progress into 4IR.

To equip them with the skills and capabilities they need, universities should investigate multiple avenues.

One avenue they can explore is how STS in GRE candidature management can facilitate acquisition of 4IR-ready skills.

If STS in GRE are mindfully employed they should contribute to student awareness of the impact of STS on their environment, qualities development, and perception of their agentic power.

Industry 4.0 Ready

A better understanding of how STS in GRE facilitate the acquisition of Industry 4.0 skills can help universities maximise implementation models of new technologies.

Development of graduate qualities lists that are specifically targeted to acquisition of Industry 4.0 skills might be useful for universities looking to specifically prepare PhDs for careers outside the Academy.

To often, Industry 4.0 skills become the focus for IT and Science based students and have less emphasis in arts-based areas such as philosophy, as well as the social sciences. It is clear that the world needs ethical leaders from all disciplines to navigate transition into 4IR.

Ethical Leaders 4IR

The ethical concerns around the development of 4IR STS into our human systems and organisations are widespread. Ethically responsible leadership in 4IR will require a set of skills and capabilities beyond more specific digital skills.

A more keenly developed awareness of how STS impact an organisational system and its members could help PhDs better navigate similar challenges outside the Academy. Just as people learn best by doing, providing students with a means to exercise their agency in technology implementation in their systems will likely result in improved learning outcomes of system impacts.

There is no magic bullet solution to ensuring we enter a 4IR that improves society rather than de-rails to a dystopian disaster. This research seeks to address one facet of the problem, what can HEIs do to better equip graduates with 4IR leadership qualities in a world in which the only certainty is uncertainty, and where our poor ethical choices can be magnified at vast scales of social impact. More specifically, how can the way we implement and handle sociotechnical systems in the graduate research environment facilitate better acquisition of 4IR capabilities.

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