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This study aims to assess the extent to which Uganda university libraries have implemented digital transformation technologies and to determine the facilitators and barriers affecting the implementation of digital transformation in selected university libraries in Uganda.

This study used a convergent parallel mixed methods design. It was conducted in six selected university libraries in Uganda, which were in three private and three public universities. The study sample included 103 librarians with a minimum qualification of a bachelor’s degree and six library directors.

The findings indicated that there was an average (n = 37, 48.7%) implementation of digital transformation in the selected university libraries in Uganda. Some of the barriers hindering digital transformation included inadequate funding, lack of awareness of digital technologies, inadequate ICT skills, insufficient ICT infrastructure and limited staff among others. There is a need for library management to provide support in the form of funds, policies and human resources to implement such digital transformation.

The criteria for choosing universities were those that have been around for at least 10 years. The reason for this was that it was assumed that these universities would have well-established staff development programmes and procedures as well as be likely to have incorporated technology into their services, including libraries. This study’s limitations stem from the fact that this criterion for selection might not apply to all Ugandan university libraries, particularly those that are less than 10 years old and may not have been well represented in this study.

The magnitude of the problem of digital transformation in university libraries in Uganda is unclear because of the limited research available in the Uganda library and information science field. This study presents the status of digital transformation in Uganda university libraries.

The purpose of this paper is to gauge the knowledge of the university leaders at the Durban University of Technology on transformation.

This study uses both quantitative and qualitative approaches guided by a structured survey questionnaire and in-depth interviews with the university leaders. The questionnaires generated the reliability coefficient α of 0.947, indicating a high degree of acceptance and consistency of the results.

The study findings reveal the highest percentage of 70 per cent regarding the belief that transformation refers to restructuring the institution more than commonly anticipated variables such as race (56 per cent) and redressing the past injustices (59 per cent).

The limitation of the study was the scarcity of published material on the sub-dimensions of the study of transformation (transformation as referring to attracting qualified employees). Another limitation which was observed included the paucity of data regarding discipline and knowledge of transformation variables.

This study suggests transformation in higher education institutions is defined through internal (operational and core) and external factors with a direct influence.

This paper could potentially enrich the meaning of transformation, derived from the context and experience of South Africa.

The purpose of this study was to identify the transformation disclosures in the publicly available annual reports of South African public universities and to establish the extent to which universities account to their stakeholders about how they have discharged their transformation obligations.

This exploratory qualitative study involves a thematic content analysis of publicly available annual reports using ATLAS.ti software to identify and categorise transformation interventions disclosed by South African public universities.

This empirical study identifies several interventions that universities have introduced to facilitate access to and successful completion of tertiary studies by students. Some of the disclosed mechanisms include the provision of financial aid, student support and counselling, tutoring and mentoring and ICT enhancements and the introduction of language policies. The results also highlighted several challenges to sustainable transformation including funding, social and academic barriers and infrastructural challenges experienced by universities.

According to the authors’ knowledge, this study represents one of the first studies to use the public disclosures in the annual reports of public universities to identify interventions introduced to facilitate transformation of the student body. Despite its South African orientation, the observations have implications for universities worldwide experiencing similar challenges, especially in developing countries.

With the growing climate problem, it has become a consensus to develop low-carbon technologies to reduce emissions. Electric industry is a major carbon-emitting industry, accounting for 35% of global carbon emissions. Universities, as an important patent application sector in China, promote their patent application and transformation to enhance Chinese technological innovation capability. This study aims to analyze low-carbon electricity technology transformation in Chinese universities.

This paper uses IncoPat to collect patent data. The trend of low-carbon electricity technology patent applications in Chinese universities, the status, patent technology distribution, patent transformation status and patent transformation path of valid patent is analyzed.

Low-carbon electricity technology in Chinese universities has been promoted, and the number of patents has shown rapid growth. Invention patents proportion is increasing, and the transformation has become increasingly active. Low-carbon electricity technology in Chinese universities is mainly concentrated in individual cooperative patent classification (CPC) classification numbers, and innovative technologies will be an important development for electric reduction.

This paper innovatively uses valid patents to study the development of low-carbon electricity technology in Chinese universities, and defines low-carbon technology patents by CPC patent classification system. A new attempt focuses on the development status and direction in low-carbon electricity technology in Chinese universities, and highlights the contribution of valid patents to patent value.

This chapter discusses the role of language in the transformation of two African institutions of higher education, namely the University of Botswana (in Botswana) and the University of KwaZulu-Natal (in South Africa). The transformation of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, which is aimed at addressing the inequalities and other ills of the apartheid era, has taken on board language issues. For instance, isiZulu is being developed and promoted to join English as a language of scholarship. In contrast, the University of Botswana’s transformation does not stem from a political background of oppression. The institutional transformation has to do internationalization and the conversion into a research-intensive university. This transformation, unlike at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, has not taken a strong move to develop and promote Setswana (Botswana’s national language) as a language of scholarship.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the latest digital transformation (DT) technological trends the university library can use to provide library users with alternative educational services. AI can foster intelligent decisions for retrieving and sharing information for learning and research. However, extant literature confirms a low adoption rate by the university libraries in using AI to provide innovative alternative services, as this is missing in their strategic plan. The research develops (AI-LSICF) an artificial intelligence library services innovative conceptual framework to provide new insight into how AI technology can be used to deliver value-added innovative library services to achieve digital transformation. It will also encourage library and information professionals to adopt AI to complement effective service delivery.

This study adopts a qualitative content analysis to investigate extant literature on how AI adoption fosters innovative services in various organisations. The study also used content analysis to generate possible solutions to aid AI service innovation and delivery in university libraries.

This study uses its findings to develop an Artificial Intelligence Library Services Innovative Conceptual Framework (AI-LSICF) by integrating AI applications and functions into the digital transformation framework elements and discussed using a service innovation framework.

In research, AI-LSICF helps increase an understanding of AI by presenting new insights into how the university library can leverage technology to actualise innovation in service provision to foster DT. This trail will be valuable to scholars and academics interested in addressing the application pathways of AI library service innovation, which is still under-explored in digital transformation.

In practice, AI-LSICF could reform the information industry from its traditional brands into a more applied and resolutely customer-driven organisation. This reformation will awaken awareness of how librarians and information professionals can leverage technology to catch up with digital transformation in this age of the fourth industrial revolution.

The enlightenment of AI-LSICF will motivate library professionals to take advantage of AI's potential to enhance their current business model and achieve a unique competitive advantage within their community.

AI-LSICF development serves as a revelation, motivating university libraries and information professionals to consider AI in their strategic plan to enable technology to support university education. This act will enable alternative service delivery in the face of unforeseen circumstances like technological disruption and the present global COVID-19 pandemic that requires non-physical interaction.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the key aspects of transformation of universities towards sustainability, such as the ideal characteristics of the “sustainable university”, and the drivers and barriers in the transformation, by comparing the strategies of seven universities world‐wide.

A systems transformation analysis of seven case studies has been applied through a self‐evaluation based on the tridimensional Framework‐Level‐Actors (FLA) method.

The study shows that none of the three dimensions of change is predominant over the others. The main barrier to be overcome is the lack of incentive structure for promoting changes at the individual level. The main drivers for change are the presence of “connectors” with society, the existence of coordination bodies and projects, and the availability of funding, all of which are important for progress. Enhancing interdisciplinarity is a strategic objective at almost all of these universities, while transformative learning is less present. A common characteristic for most of the institutions is establishing and supporting networks of expertise within the universities. These universities show important strategic efforts and initiatives that drive and nucleate change for sustainable development, the result of a combination of drivers.

The FLA‐method has proved useful for being used at the level of comparing case‐studies through a bird's‐eye perspective.

The paper demonstrates the application of a simple tool that gives a global perspective on transformational strategies used in seven cases world‐wide in the search for commonalities and differences.

For solving the dilemma between the cognitive cost and value of the uncertainty and negative feedback loop formed by them in the knowledge transfer process, the purpose of this paper is to attempt to construct a new web‐based knowledge flow model to find an alternative diffusion path which had become the inevitable choice in achieving Industry‐University collaboration.

In view of this, based on the statistical data compilation of the Universities of Science and Technology of China from 2002 to 2008, the visual diagrams, econometric model and grey incidence model were used to analyze the situation of the technology innovation and technology transformation on the combined learning with research in Jiangsu. Then, the conceptual model and the organization management pattern for network‐based Industry‐University‐Research collaboration was put forward.

The results are convincing: the new web‐based knowledge flow model in this paper could overcome barriers in the knowledge flow process of the Industry‐University collaboration with the innovation and the integration of the cross‐border and also promote the exchange of knowledge especially for tacit knowledge and value‐added mobile and can also improve the regional technological innovation ability and technology transformation capabilities.

The paper succeeds in constructing the web‐based knowledge flow model to develop the Industry‐University collaboration and help improve regional innovation and technology transformation.

This chapter examines the similarities and differences between the concepts of transformational leadership as developed within North America and the Confucian idea of transformation. It argues that Confucian tradition encompasses the essential elements embedded in the concept of transformational leadership. The former differentiates from the latter in its deeper degree of transformation, emphasis on morality and culture, and its focus on transformation from the inside outwards. The two greatest educators in Chinese history, Confucius and Cai Yuanpei, are evaluated in terms of their transformational leadership qualities in the Western sense. By looking at Confucius and Cai Yuanpei as successful transformational leaders, the chapter identifies four important factors from Chinese cases that may contribute to the success of this type of leadership. Implications of this comparison are discussed as they may inform the knowledge, research and practices of transformational leadership.

This paper aims to investigate the roles of leadership in enabling sustainability transformation of universities and higher sustainability management education. It advocates research into the role of leadership for a university’s sustainability transformation by exploring interactions between university members and institutional contexts.

Using a case study approach, this study explores the sustainability transformation of a university and its influence on the MBA Sustainability Management by applying Mintzberg’s leadership framework.

The findings suggest that leaders can strongly influence a process of change in mindsets, practices and curricula to incorporate sustainability into higher business education institutions. Whereas bottom-up leadership initiatives are crucial, leadership support from top management is seen as important to enable larger, more radical steps of transformation.

It is worthy noting that in the medium run strategic leadership to develop good sustainability management education programs requires a consistent institutional commitment for sustainability.