EDUCAUSE 2019, Chicago

Key themes and findings from EDUCAUSE 2019 

EDUCAUSE TOP 10 IT Issues 

1. Information Security Strategy: Developing a risk-based security strategy that effectively detects, responds to, and prevents security threats and challenges

2. Privacy: Safeguarding institutional constituents' privacy rights and maintaining accountability for protecting all types of restricted data

3. Sustainable Funding: Developing funding models that can maintain quality and accommodate both new needs and the growing use of IT services in an era of increasing budget constraints

4. Digital Integrations: Ensuring system interoperability, scalability, and extensibility, as well as data integrity, security, standards, and governance, across multiple applications and platforms

5. Student Retention and Completion: Developing the capabilities and systems to incorporate artificial intelligence into student services to provide personalized, timely support (new!)

6. Student-Centric Higher Education: Creating a student-services ecosystem to support the entire student life cycle, from prospecting to enrollment, learning, job placement, alumni engagement, and continuing education

7. Improved Enrollment: Using technology, data, and analytics to develop an inclusive and financially sustainable enrollment strategy to serve more and new learners by personalizing recruitment, enrollment, and learning experiences (new!)

8. Higher Education Affordability: Aligning IT organizations‚ priorities, and resources with institutional priorities and resources to achieve a sustainable future

9. Administrative Simplification: Applying user-centered design, process improvement, and system reengineering to reduce redundant or unnecessary efforts and improve end- user experiences (new!)

10. The Integrative CIO: Repositioning or reinforcing the role of IT leadership as an integral strategic partner of institutional leadership in supporting institutional missions

TOP 10 IT Issues within the four themes 

Simplify

4. Digital Intgegrations
9. Administrative Simplifications 

• Need to do more with less 
• Good experience to end users
• Break down the silos
• Not enough resources and funding → need different strategies to tackle the issues of 2020 

Sustain

1. Information Security Strategy
2. Privacy
3. Sustainable Funding
8. Higher Education Affordability

• Information security as a top issue
• Security analytics 
• Institutions need to recognise IT's value to business models 
• Data is the new currency of the institutions

Innovate 

5. Student Retention and Completion
6. Student-Centric Higher Education
7. Improved Enrollment

Drive to Dx (Digital transformation)

10. The Integrative CIO: Repositioning or reinforcing the role of IT leadership as an integral strategic partner of institutional leadership in supporting institutional missions

• Which changes first, the institution or the CIO? 
• Digital transformation is not digitization
• Does this all hinge on the Integrative CIO? → CIO as a key to tackle the nine other issues

Digital transformation 

4th industrial revolution - Education 4.0 - what next? 

• Big revolutions & changes, small resources
• HEI's have a strong will to change, but does not how to do it 
• Traditionally HEI's do a lot alone and the work is siloed, digitalisation increases the need for cooperations and shared resources 

Reconceptualizing Education

• Digital skills will be required in all disciplines: human & technology skills will be even more closely integrated in all professions; using data, large datasets and algorithms become more and more important 
• Average employee will need 101 days retraining and up-skilling by 2020, still time for reselling is limited which poses a challenge for life-long learning.
• Frequent up-skilling and retraining does it that there will not be time to always go back to do a degree
  • Micro-learning evolves 
  • A lot of retraining focuses to people that are already educated, now we have the challenge to reach and upskill low-literate workers and fit the lifestyle of time-constrained adults 
  • AI supporting the change and making possible to do thing differently.