Top-Ten IT Issues in Higher Education: EDUCAUSE 2008 Survey Results

EDUCAUSE, the association for information technology in higher education, has just published the results of the 2008 Current Issues Survey in EDUCAUSE Quarterly; a summary version appears in the latest EDUCAUSE Review. The articles identify the issues that IT leaders in higher education see as their most critical challenges. Of special value to IT professionals, the article’s associated web page EDUCAUSE 2008 Current Issues Survey Resources includes:

• Recommended readings for each of the top-ten issues
• Downloadable PowerPoint slides on current IT issues and multiyear trends
• Tables with demographic breakdowns of the survey results

The 2008 survey gathered responses from 32 percent (589) of the 1,845 primary representatives of EDUCAUSE member institutions, representing public and private, and associate- through doctorate-granting institutions of all sizes. The primary representative is typically the CIO at the member institution.

Three findings merit special mention.

• Since 2003, the top-three issues in terms of strategic importance to the institution have been, in various rankings, Administrative/ERP Information Systems, Funding IT, and Security. Funding IT was ranked number one for three straight years, 2003–2005, until 2006 when Security and Identity Management (a single issue then) emerged as number one. In 2007, Funding IT moved back into the top spot, with Security as number two. This year, Security is number one, Administrative/ERP Information Systems is number two, and Funding IT has dropped to number three. These issues collectively continue to be the critical touchstones for IT in higher education. When any one of them falters, whether through major data-integrity breaches, system implementation glitches, or budget cuts, an institution’s strategic health is threatened.
• Change Management appears in the top-ten list for the first time. This issue has two dimensions, one in the larger sense of fostering culture change and the other in the sense of developing a process for handling IT changes that are made on a regular basis (e.g., patches, upgrades, replacements) and that can be very disruptive if there is no change management process in place. Ultimately, Change Management requires planning for change: defining what the change is; understanding how it will affect existing systems; and communicating, testing, and evaluating the change, once implemented, to make sure it accomplishes the intended purpose.
• Staffing/HR Management/Training emerges among issues of strategic importance for the first time since 2001. At that time, IT departments in many institutions, regardless of size, were still grappling with staffing challenges that the Y2K milestone had presented, either for modifying homegrown legacy systems to perform in a new millennium, with increasing demands for web-based services, or for developing new skills in staff to integrate and manage newly purchased ERP systems. In 2008 there is a renewed awareness among CIOs of the challenges of recruiting, remunerating, and retaining a skilled IT staff. Whether hiring people with specialties in such emerging areas as security, identity management, and instructional design/technology or cultivating those skills inexisting staff, CIOs face a daunting test to provide a workforce that can meet their institutions’ IT needs in the midst of constrained institutional budgets and increasing competition for experienced professionals.

The PowerPoint slides of the 2008 survey data, using tables, demographic breakdowns, and comparative analyses from the article, is a perennially popular resource. CIOs and IT professionals can draw on these slides for presentations to various constituencies on how their campuses and systems are addressing current IT issues. The slides, which can be customized as needed, are accessible on the EDUCAUSE 2008 Current Issues Survey Resources web site.

About EDUCAUSE

EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. The current membership comprises more than 2,200 colleges, universities, and educational organizations, including 250 corporations, with 17,000 active members. Learn more about EDUCAUSE at www.educause.edu.