Identity Management in Higher Education, 2011—Key Findings

This document presents the key findings from Identity Management in Higher Education, 2011. This ECAR research study illuminates findings from the 2010 survey of identity management (IdM) practices in higher education. It compares the findings to those from ECAR’s 2006 baseline research on the same topic. The study investigated institutional readiness for IdM across several dimensions and looked at the impact on IdM outcomes. The work focused on a set of five core elements of IdM practices: authentication, reduced or single sign-on, enterprise directories, automated role- and privilege-based authorization, and federated identity. The study is based on a literature review, consultation with higher education IT administrators and IdM experts to identify and validate survey questions, survey responses from 323 higher education institutions (of which 137 took part in both the 2005 and 2010 surveys), qualitative interviews with 55 higher education IT leaders and staff, and two case studies, one examining the evolution of IdM at Coppin State University and one chronicling the development of a federated identity solution at the University of North Carolina.

Citation for this work: Sheehan, Mark C. Identity Management in Higher Education, 2011—Key Findings (Key Findings). Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, 2011, available from http://www.educause.edu/ecar.