Smart universities: Adaption challenges for Historically black universities in South Africa: A concept overview.

Universities today are experimenting with AI and big data to improve how students live and learn oncampus; however, from a South African perspective, the question is: can historically blackuniversities adapt to this ever-changing higher education environment? This paper employed aqualitative research method to answer these questions, and secondary data was sourced fromengaging current literature. The paper found that infrastructure challenges, a lack of skills anddevelopment and limited resources were major factors hindering historically black universities fromadopting the concept of a smart university; historically black universities offered minimal no techfocusedcourses, which reduced them to acclimatize themselves with the elements of the 4IR. Theimplications have been that historically black universities will struggle to catch up to previouslywhite universities in transitioning their campuses from the traditional model of higher education tothe concept of a smart campus.