Dr. Janja Komljenovic

In this talk, I address different ways in which content is assetised in higher education and the consequences for the academic sector. Copyright arrangements on academic outputs, such as journal articles or teaching material, are not new. However, there are new developments and circumstances that bring novel concerns to the fore, especially the development of new technologies and the expansion of online higher education provision. First, renting out content for training generative AI is a new form of making content valuable. For example, news reported on Taylor & Francis selling access to their research to Microsoft AI, with academics questioning the legitimacy of this decision. Second, universities are strengthening their exercise of copyright for online learning materials in light of the increasing competition in online learning markets. Third, various platform companies are building valuable assets by enclosing student and/or staff content. For example, plagiarism detection software has been questioned for intellectual property rights, among other concerns. I will analyse these strategies of monetising academic content as part of broader digital rentiership dynamics, and discuss how this changes social and economic relations between academics, students, universities, academic publishers, and technology companies.

Janja Komljenovic is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Education Futures at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on the political economy of higher education digital transformation and particularly higher education digital markets, the datafication of universities, and the EdTech industry. Janja has published internationally on higher education policy, markets, and education technology.