Education Technology Spending Up

Technology spending by colleges and universities in academic year 2005-2006 is projected to reach $6.9 billion, a 35 percent increase over the previous year. Public institutions lead the way, spending an average of $1.6 million per institution on technology, up 20 percent from 2004-2005 levels. Private schools will spend an average of $1.3 million per institution, a 26 percent increase.

... and Continuing to Grow

With an extra 2 million full-time students expected to be enrolled in higher education institutions by 2010, those institutions’ investments in information and communication technology are estimated to grow from $4.7 billion in 2005 to $5.9 billion in 2009, according to a November 2005 report from Datamonitor, a research and analysis firm with U.S. offices in New York City.

Managing Your Constituencies

Constituent relationship management (CRM) is becoming a powerful instrument for higher education administrators seeking to improve student recruitment and retention and alumni engagement, says Eduventures, a Boston-based market research firm.

Eduventures reports that the CRM market will grow in excess of 20 percent over the next two years. During the 2004-2005 academic year, some 23 percent of institutions were using CRM software; another 22 percent implemented these systems during 2005-2006.

IT Security: Top of Mind

The results are in, and the winner in this year’s EDUCAUSE Current Issues Survey is … security and identity management. This is the first time that security has outscored funding in perceived strategic importance, after rising steadily during the past four years. The list below ranks the top 10 issues that command the attention of higher education IT leaders in 2006.

1. Security and identity management

2. Funding IT

3. Administrative/enterprise resource planning/information systems

4. Disaster recovery/business continuity

5. Faculty development, support and training

6. Infrastructure

7. Strategic planning

8. Governance, organization and leadership

9. E-Learning/distributed teaching and learning

10. Web systems and services