Digital Academic Solutions Ltd
Website: www.digitalacademic.co.uk
Digital Academic was founded in early 2017. The company developed three digital platforms – Digicat, LectureView and Seminapp. Each platform aims to improve life for teachers and students alike by harnessing the power of digitisation, media and mobiles.
Digicat, as an example, is already live and its driving purpose is to connect students, potential students and stakeholders with teachers, researchers and each other. It offers students visual and smart module selection with real-time skills mapping helping students visualise and manage their learning journeys like never before.
The project was the brainchild of Paul Davies, a lecturer in marketing at Swansea University. It came about as the result of an internal school intervention that used video and mobiles to help expedite the recruitment of students onto new modules and courses.
Since then it has grown with the support of the AgorIP project team into a spin-out company which now has a part-time team of eight technical and support staff. The team includes experienced professionals and also provides internships to Swansea University under-graduate and recent graduates, giving them valuable hands-on experience of working within a real commercial environment.
The company’s products have massive potential, with the market for new digitally-based platforms and student and teaching services growing exponentially within Higher Education year on year. Should the company be successful in continuing to scale what it does if offers Welsh universities and colleges the opportunity to improve efficiency and performance while enhancing their level of branding and attractiveness to potential students both in the UK and importantly overseas. This could translate directly into more students opting to study in Wales and this could have significant and positive knock on effects for jobs.