Developing the Administration of the University of Ha’il in Light of the Fourth Industrial Revolution Requirements

The current research aimed to identify the needs for developing the University of Ha’il (UoH) administration in light of the requirements of the fourth industrial revolution by discussing the potential obstacles and challenges that the administration may encounter in meeting these demands, as well as the potential mechanisms for resolving them from the perspectives of academic leaders and teaching staff, and to determine the existence of statistically significant differences in the responses of academic leaders and faculty members regarding the most important challenges facing the development of the administration of Ha’il University and the mechanisms for dealing with them. A cross-sectional/descriptive and analytical method was used to analyze, describe, investigate, and acknowledge the obstacles that prevent the development of university administration to meet the requirements of the fourth industrial revolution and to derive the proposed mechanisms to overcome these obstacles from both academic leaders’ and teaching staff’s points of view. This study’s findings confirmed that the UoH administration faces a number of challenges, such as the lack of regulations governing the use of technologies and software, the lack of a clear and specific plan to employ the technologies of the fourth industrial revolution in the development of university administration, the delayed maintenance of devices on which the software and technologies are installed, and the lack of acceptance by some administrators of the idea of using the techniques of the fourth industrial revolution in the development of university administration out of fear of losing their jobs. By addressing these challenges and embracing some potential mechanisms, the university can effectively navigate the complexities of the 4IR. Therefore, this study suggests implementing cloud computing, artificial intelligence applications, and new technologies to develop the administrative work system at the University of Ha’il. This can lead to development and excellence in administrative performance.