Some highlights:
Roles and Organization
- Most IT and technology leaders (82%) are happy with their current reporting structure, a factor that correlates positively with most measures of job satisfaction.
- Senior-level leaders report an average of nine different areas of responsibility in their role, compared with an average of five among director-level leaders.
- Compared with leaders from larger institutions (8,000 or more students), leaders from smaller institutions (fewer than 4,000 students) are more likely to report having eliminated positions in key areas and taking on a higher average number of areas of responsibility.
Challenges and Opportunities of Staffing
- Just over a third of IT and technology leaders report being able to create new positions (36%), while more than half report being able to successfully hire into existing positions (56%) and retain staff (66%).
- Only 37% of respondents report a decreased budget over the past 12 months, down from 63% in an EDUCAUSE QuickPoll conducted in October 2020.
- Among leaders experiencing staffing issues at their institution, a majority report that those issues are negatively impacting their department or unit’s work (61%). These leaders are also more likely to experience burnout and to apply to other positions in the coming year.
Here’s an excerpt from Mark McCormack, Senior Director of Research & Insights for Educause:
Nearly four years out from a global pandemic that almost overnight completely reshaped how we think about the nature of our work and of ourselves as employees, much about our workplaces has seemingly returned to some semblance of normal. Many of us have returned to the office. On-site meetings and events are happening again, and without masks.
In higher education, workplace conversations have evolved from “Will we ever go back to campus?” to “Should we go back to campus?” to “Will we still work from home sometimes?” IT and technology leaders are enjoying the luxury of once again worrying more about emerging new technologies like generative AI than about COVID testing and migrating entire institutions online.
Much of the work technology in higher education seems to be the same as it ever was, once again.
Yet despite some of this “resettling,” many of today’s questions surrounding our work feel fresh and unlike so many of the questions we’ve had to navigate before. The pandemic laid bare our need for humanity and flexibility in our work, and many of us desire to somehow sustain a more human and more flexible workplace.
Make sure to download the whole report here:
Mark McCormack. The IT Leadership Workforce in Higher Education, 2024. Research report. Boulder, CO: ECAR, March 2024.
