Advance Institutional Transformation

Higher Education Strategic Foresight Report

Analyst Perspective

Piloting through disruptive times

The role of the CIO in Higher Education is becoming increasingly important. However, the traditional hierarchy of academic institutions still limits the stature of the CIO. During the pandemic, IT was called upon to maintain continuity of the organization. Now leadership is again turning to IT to support digital transformation. With the continual demands to do more, IT is gaining a seat at the table, albeit fitfully.

Driven by demand, many technology trends have accelerated, but so have the CIO’s pain points. There are the challenges meeting the requirements of faculty and administration in the face of the pandemic; there are the demands to keep up with the change in student expectations; and there is the increased workload in the IT department. Despite these challenges, it is IT’s role to help their institution adopt technologies and processes with an eye to their long-term technical and security impacts.

Info-Tech’s approach focuses on an analyst’s investigation of strategic foresight, a methodology that helps the IT department and the institution gain perspective on what is happening in the wider industry environment. As a methodology, strategic foresight flows from the identification of signals to clustering the signals together to form trends and uncover what is driving the trends to determine which strategic initiatives are most likely to lead to success on an industry level.

Mark Maby

Research Director for Education, Industry PracticeInfo-Tech Research Group

Education lags other sectors in a digital strategy

The use of digital technologies has increased over the past five years. Between 2018 and 2021 the global average, across all sectors, increased from 22% reported excellence in use of digital technologies to 41% (Harvey Nash).

Education is the lowest of all sectors in effective use of digital technologies. However, it is only two or three years behind the global average.

This report will present the trends where Higher Education is pushing against the headwinds to advance institutional strategies through digital technologies.

The trade-off for technology in Higher Education

52% - Education institutions with an IT budget increase in 2021

53% - Education institutions with an IT staffing increase in 2021

8% - Percentage of overall revenue spent on technology by institutions in the Education sector in 2021 (By comparison, Healthcare and Government spent 14% on technology)

(Source: Harvey Nash Group, 2021)

“Every dollar that we put towards an [enterprise technology], is a dollar that doesn’t go to the classroom. It doesn’t go to a faculty member, it doesn’t go to a field station where students are doing research, it doesn’t go to training faculty to do better online courses. These are really not technology decisions. They’re financial decisions or institutional decisions.” – Michael Berman, CIO of the California State University System (Source: Smalley)

By maturing its core services, IT can shift to being a business partner with the institution

IT in Higher Education currently has a higher-than-average satisfaction score compared to other industries. However, in order to truly increase on the maturity scale, the institution itself will need to adjust its priorities. Analytics and innovation are low in satisfaction and low in priority. This is a challenge industry wide. Even a core service such as the applications used in teaching and learning has a low priority. It’s imperative for IT in Higher Ed to coordinate with key stakeholders on a shared vision of the institution’s future and IT’s role in it.

79% - Average stakeholder satisfaction score for Higher Education

90%+ Satisfaction - INNOVATOR - Information and Technology as a Competitive Advantage

80% Satisfaction - BUSINESS PARTNER - Effective Delivery of Strategic Business Projects

70% Satisfaction - TRUSTED OPERATOR - Enablement of Business Through Applications and Work Orders

60% Satisfaction - FIREFIGHTER - Reliable Infrastructure and IT Service Desk

<60% Satisfaction - UNSTABLE - Inability to Consistently Deliver Basic Services

Modernization elements

Underlying many of the trends are certain modernization elements. Some of the trends provide a deeper look into critical aspects of these elements, while others assume their establishment and build upon them.

Artificial Intelligence

AI is the ability for machines to simulate intelligent human behavior. Dependent on both algorithms and data, AI can interpret information to identify patterns. Some of the ways in which colleges and universities are using AI is to support student and prospective-student inquiries on the website. The goal is to behave in a similar way to how a human would.

Internet of Things

IoT is a constellation of connected devices with embedded sensors providing real-time information to an application layer. IoT describes the enhanced connectivity we now experience with everyday devices and appliances that would not typically boast such capabilities. Many institutions are already using IoT; however, their number is expected to increase rapidly with the introduction of 5G.

Big Data

Big data is rapidly increasing amounts of data generated by multiple sources in many formats. To gain actionable insights, the data must be analyzed. Higher Education can capitalize on the information about students to drive recruitment, drive retention initiatives, and better meet the expectations of students. Both IoT and AI depend on big data to function at optimal levels.

Advanced Wireless

Two connectivity methods gaining visibility are 5G and Wi-Fi 6. As devices continue to proliferate on campus, and as IoT devices increase in their capabilities, Higher Education will require a strong technology infrastructure. In fact, having strong Wi-Fi is a top technology priority of faculty and students alike.

Four driving trends

Info-Tech’s strategic foresight for technology to support Higher Education flows from the identification of technology signals to categorically clustering the signals together to form the following impactful trends:

Security is survival

Make protection frictionless

As endpoints grow and the perimeter recedes, IT must employ new approaches to secure the institution.

New workplace/new learning space

Meeting the expectations of learners

The way in which we teach, learn, and work is evolving, and IT needs to keep abreast of the changes in technology and preferences.

Recoding organizational DNA

Technology-driven transformation

As cloud-based systems become the norm, we need to consider not only whether the institution is ready, but the industry as a whole.

Reducing the burden

Value-driven modernization

Innovation is the key for institutions to stay competitive in the changing landscape. IT can be a partner in this innovation.

Leveraging the trends report as a key input

Higher Education Strategic Trends Report

Trends Report

As part of your next steps checklist, leverage this trends report for priorities that drive measurable top-line organizational outcomes and the unlocking of direct value.

Digital strategy & IT Strategy

IT Strategy | Digital Strategy

Info-Tech’s Define Your Digital Business Strategy and Build a Business-Aligned IT Strategy blueprints give you the tools you need to effectively process signals in your environment, build an understanding of relevant trends, and turn this understanding into action. This will help you establish a structured approach to innovation management that considers external trends as well as internal processes.

Developing the trends radar

Develop a holistic industry view of trends

Before implementing trend technologies, you need a holistic understanding of how they will impact higher education institutions at an industry level.

Info-Tech evaluated the trend opportunities through a set of higher education drivers:

• Institutional Growth & Sustainability
• Risk & Resilience
• Operational Excellence & Responsibility
• Instructional & Research Value
• Brand Impact & Community Engagement

Drivers are fundamental to building plausible scenarios that could arise from adopting a given trend. These value drivers are used to understand what is or is not driving a particular trend. This is achieved by identifying the value drivers for each trend as weak, medium, strong, or superior.

Value drivers for Higher Education

Institutional Growth & Sustainability

Drives sustainable growth, diversifies methods of generating revenue and decreasing costs, and increases student/institutional market reach.

Operational Excellence & Responsibility

Provides transparency in the flow of value to the students and faculty, empowers administrative staff, and promotes teamwork, while strengthening its position on social responsibility.

Instructional & Research Value

Enhances the experience of students and faculty in their studies. It also supports the funding, development, and dissemination of academic and applied research.

Risk & Resilience

Mitigates and withstands rapid changes across the IT landscape, secures student and academic information while protecting personal and institutional information, and easily integrates with current technologies, projects, and strategies.

Brand Impact & Community Engagement

Differentiates the institution from competitors to external communities and supports strategic priorities.

How each trend measures against the value drivers for Higher Education

How to read this trend report

Each trend contains the following sections

Works Cited

Harvey Nash. “Harvey Nash Group Digital Leadership Report.” Harvey Nash Group, 2021.

Smalley, Suzanne. “Student Information System Difficulties Frustrate Universities.” Inside Higher Ed, 11 Jan. 2022.

STRATEGIC FORESIGHT TREND 1

Security Is Survival

Make protection frictionless

Security is survival

Make protection frictionless

There really is no security perimeter anymore. Boundaries have become blurred as institutional staff work from anywhere, and services such as cloud technologies can come from anywhere. Transition to zero trust is being discussed because it creates an IT world of self-defending data. It creates a world where no access is trusted and must always be verified for every service touched. Trust is driven by internal data domain definition of boundaries, not by external demand. Access is limited and controlled through authentication and role, which demands a thoroughly modern IAM system.

$447k was the average cost of a ransomware attack in Higher Ed in 2020. (BlueVoyant, 2021)

$3.79m was the average cost of a data breach in the Education sector in 2021. (IBM Security, 2021)

$3.61m was the average cost of a breach in hybrid cloud environments in 2021. (IBM Security, 2021)

Only 28% of Higher Ed respondents felt that their cybersecurity team had the necessary cloud vendor management policies and procedures fully in place. (Educause, “QuickPoll Results,” 2021)

66% of universities lack the DNS-based email security protocols to reduce phishing attacks. (BlueVoyant, 2021)

Technology signals

SECURITY IS SURVIVAL

Signals of technological change (consumer, competitive, or otherwise) that indicate a divergence from the status quo.

Info-Tech Insight

Technology cannot protect us. We have learned that guaranteed security is impossible, and even good security is extraordinarily expensive. Most move to a risk vs. benefit assessment for all investments.

Value drivers

WHAT IS DRIVING THIS TREND IN HIGHER EDUCATION?

Institutional growth and sustainability

Many institutions continue to run an extraordinarily wide variety of technologies and vendor solutions, leaving them with a broad attack surface. A zero trust strategy is the only viable solution for such a heterogeneous environment. The basis of a strong zero trust framework going forward will allow for safer cloud migration as well as a better implementation of on- campus technology such as IoT devices for energy efficiency.

Risk & resilience

There are more risks than there is money. Institutions have a massive list of security improvements they need to make and not enough funding or resources to implement all the changes needed. IT organizations need to develop prioritization criteria in collaboration with senior leadership, then rank security investments by those criteria and implement changes as security project portfolio.

Operational excellence & responsibility

APIs themselves are a key component of automation; they are often a simple solution to reducing manual aspects of administrative workflows. The challenge is that in a federated model, IT administrators at various schools could make the decision to allow API gateways prior to centralization.

Institutional Growth & Sustainability - Medium

Risk & Resilience - Superior

Operational Excellence & Responsibility - Medium

Instructional & Research Value - Strong

Brand Impact & Community Engagement - Weak

Value drivers

WHAT IS DRIVING THIS TREND IN HIGHER EDUCATION?

Instructional and research value

LTIs (learning technology interoperability, the APIs for an LMS) have instructional value for faculty. They allow instructors to better customize their hybrid instructional environment to the specific pedagogic needs of their courses. Security restrictions will seem out of place to many instructors when the LTIs they wish to install are coming from a reputable source. A frictionless method of approval and installation will be an important way to smooth any ruffled feathers.

Brand impact & community engagement

Institutions thrive and grow based on strong reputations. By mitigating security risks, private data is protected and confidence in the institution is created.

There are many API integrations for Slack and other business communication platforms that facilitate better communication with the community members of the institution. This further supports the need of good standards and policies around the adoption of new connections to the network. Furthermore, a public security incident can negatively affect the public’s view of the institution, which may have a direct effect on the ability to win institutional and academic grants.

Institutional Growth & Sustainability - Medium

Risk & Resilience - Superior

Operational Excellence & Responsibility - Medium

Instructional & Research Value - Strong

Brand Impact & Community Engagement - Weak

Benefits

SECURITY IS SURVIVAL

Data loss prevention

The security of an organization extends well beyond the firewall. Identifying what data is going out, where it’s going, and being able to take policy-based action in response is a key requirement. Discovery and uncovering shadow IT activities requires knowledge of all cloud services used – sanctioned or not.

Threat protections

With nation-states attempting to steal IP and research, and with criminal organizations attempting to monetize breaches, threat protection has become essential to the survival of institutions.

Data repositories in the cloud represent opportunities for malicious attack. CASBs learn from regular activity and can detect unusual behavior and take prescribed action. CASBs can use threat intelligence knowledge bases to identify and block incoming threats from the cloud.