Top-Ten IT Issues in Higher Education: EDUCAUSE 2006 Survey Results

EDUCAUSE, the association for information technology in higher education, has just published the results of the 2006 Current IT Issues Survey in the summer issue of EDUCAUSE Quarterly (EQ). The article identifies the issues that IT leaders in higher education see as their most critical challenges.

Of special value to IT professionals, the EDUCAUSE 2006 Current Issues Web site includes:

• recommended readings on each of the top-ten issues,
• links to comprehensive resources in the EDUCAUSE Resource Center, and
• downloadable slide presentations on current issues for use with campus constituencies.

A condensed version of the EQ article appears in the May/June 2006 issue of EDUCAUSE Review.

The 2006 survey gathered responses from 37 percent (628) of the 1,708 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 for all respondents from this year's survey are especially notable:

• For the first time ever, Security and Identity Management has topped Funding ITas the number-one IT-related issue in terms of its strategic importance to the institution. Funding IT occupied the top position from 2003 to 2005, but since 2002, the year following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States, Security and Identity Management has risen steadily in perceived importance: fourth in 2002, third in 2003 and 2004, second in 2005, and now first.
• The devastating hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005, culminating in Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, prompted nationwide attention in the higher education community to the issue of Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity. This issue was number four in strategic importance this year, after appearing only once before in the top ten (number ten in 2004). Having closely watched what happened at colleges and universities in New Orleans and other devastated areas, and having participated in the hurricane relief efforts mounted by ACE, EDUCAUSE, and other organizations, IT leaders at institutions of all kinds and sizes have come to appreciate the astonishing complexity of trying to maintain or reestablish information and communications services after a disaster. CIOs and their staffs are now scrutinizing their own disaster recovery plans for sufficient depth and detail of readiness. Out of the shared experiences of IT leaders in the hurricane-affected areas, IT leaders throughout higher education have learned new aspects of data and hardware backup, rapid infrastructure rebuilding, alternative Web site hosting, interinstitutional collaboration, application continuity contracts, and on-the-fly project management.
• Enterprise-Level Portalsdropped off the list of top-ten IT issues of strategic importance to the institution. This change most likely points to two intersecting dynamics: (1) more vendor-supplied enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have incorporated a portal solution/module into their products; and (2) whether homegrown or vendor-supplied, information portals for students, faculty, and staff have been implemented at numerous institutions of all types and sizes, with some portals in third- and fourth-generation iterations. Thus, this phenomenon has evolved into a service that is being maintained and refined, and CIOs no longer perceive enterprise-level portals to be compelling enough to be listed among the top-ten IT issues.

EDUCAUSE staff and the Current Issues Committee, which manages the survey and writes the EQ article, have updated a resource introduced in 2005: Four PowerPoint presentations of the 2006 survey’s data, using tables, demographic breakdowns, and comparative analyses from the article. CIOs and IT professionals can draw on these slides for presentations to various constituencies, such as presidents and deans cabinets, legislative bodies, computing advisory boards, and IT staff, on how their campuses and systems are addressing current IT issues. The slides, which can be deleted or customized as needed, are accessible on the EDUCAUSE 2006 Current Issues 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.