The EDUCAUSE 2023 Top 10 IT Issues help describe the foundation models that colleges and universities will develop next year and beyond, acting on what was learned in the pandemic and framed by the three building blocks of leadership, data, and work and learning.
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The 2023 Top 10 IT Issues is sponsored by AT&T, Jenzabar, and Spectrum Enterprise.
In 2023, institutional and technology leaders are ready for a new approach. They are responding to we’ve learned from the pandemic, what we were beginning to address before the pandemic, and our shared, enduring beliefs in the power of higher education .
The 2023 Top 10 IT Issues describe the foundation models institutional and technology leaders are developing. moving from task-specific, silo-specific strategy and infrastructure to institution-wide flexible, reusable models for running the institution and achieving its missions.
Three building blocks comprise the new foundation models:
The first is Leading with Wisdom.
Higher education technology leaders have a formidable challenge: They need to call on both head and heart, both strategy and execution, to inspire, lead, and manage their organization and staff. They need intelligence, experience, and empathy. They need wisdom.
The issues under this heading include:
#1 A Seat at the Table
#3 Evolve, Adapt, or Lose Talent
and
#5 Enriching the Leadership Playbook.
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Another building block of the new foundation models is The Ultra-Intelligent Institution.
In higher education, work with data, analytics, machine learning, and AI aspires to provide institutional decision-makers with ongoing, useful, and increasingly sophisticated insights.
These issues include:
#2 Privacy and Cybersecurity 101
#4 Smooth Sailing for the Student Experience.
#6 Expanding Enrollments and the Bottom Line
as well as
#7 Moving from Data Insight to Data Action.
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The third building block is the idea that Everything is Anywhere.
Our pivot to remote education and work during the pandemic have shown that the institution is no longer confined to the physical campus. Institutional data is stored, transmitted, and accessed on campus computers, home computers, portable devices, cloud servers, and other solution provider machines. Everything is anywhere.
The issues under this heading include:
#8 A New Era of IT Support
#9 Online In Person or Hybrid? Yes
and
#10 Saas, ERP, and CRM: An Alphabet Soup of Oppportunity
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Like AI foundation models, higher education's foundation models today are critically central yet incomplete. They carry enormous benefits, but will not be cheap or fast or risk-free. Yet because they do carry enormous benefits, these foundation models for higher education may represent our best path forward.