And the No. 1 challenge for college IT departments is … “funding.”
While that may come as no surprise to those working in the field, a list of the top-10 IT issues in higher education was released this week by Educause, the higher-education technology group, reaffirming what many already suspected. The 10th annual report blames “diving endowments, hiring freezes, and budget cuts” for insufficient money allocated to IT departments nationwide, taking the top spot on the list from security, which dropped to third. But the two seem to be connected — the report blames small IT budgets for many security problems.
Instead of only pointing out the flaws they found at the 554 colleges and universities that responded to their survey, Educause also offers advice and resources for all of the problems that made the list.
4 Responses to Lack of Money Is Biggest Problem for Higher-Ed IT Departments
paievoli - August 3, 2009 at 9:01 am
This is why we need to re-invent the financial model of academia. We need to utilize social media, e-Learning and appropriate e-Commerce to help fund our needs. We are involved in a new, new economy. One that has changed forever and is never going back to what we had. This recession is a sign of this new economy not just a set back to what we had before. We in academia need to utilize these new technologies for our own benefit and not merely use them as is. We need to invest in them. Please visit my website and see for yourself.
http://www.theCampusCenter.com
Patrick
22235928 - August 3, 2009 at 10:18 am
Why is it that every problem in higher ed can only be solved by pitching more money at it?
This, in and of itself, is the real biggest problem in academia. It is the belief that vast amounts of money, that comes from willing and unwilling donors through voluntary contributions or via confiscatory and unrepresented taxation, should be turned over to academics, most of whom have had no real business experience and success, for use as academics see fit – all without any real accountability.
professor01 - August 3, 2009 at 10:38 am
Lack of funding is not the cause; it’s a symptom. The real cause is the low priority that higher ed gives to IT. In the 21st century, IT is akin to being another utility, like heat and electricity. Would a college shortchange/underfund those utilities? Higher ed needs to accept the fact that IT is an essential component today and accord IT the higher funding priority that it deservces.
tcheste - August 3, 2009 at 7:28 pm
I think the challenge has been that the necessary accountability has not been in place to force higher education to pay for needed investments in innovation (many of them technology based) through productivity gains. HE is just about the only business around that has paid for 100% of its growth in quality and output by increasing its price. That is why the price of a degree has significantly outpaced inflation over the past 10 years. Leveraging productivity gains to fund innovation requires a conscious effort to reduce personal costs through the increased use of technology. When a business invests in a technology that makes it more productive, it pays for that investment by reducing its personnel costs consistent with the new productivity gain. HE just reallocates that productivity gain to some new area and never captures the savings, often doing so without considering that reallocation of resources as a new strategic investment. Thats why, absent cutbacks in funding, staff costs seem to never go down. Politics makes it difficult to capture the savings from these productivity gains, it is the same as with state government. Increased public accountability is the only thing that can perhaps change this equation.