New national survey reports on IT trends for campuses in 2014
[1] It’s not news to say that the IT demands placed on campuses across the country are skyrocketing, thanks to student, and administrator, need for mobile devices and communications access. But with the economy still in recovery, and technology use increasing at a beyond-rapid rate, are campuses really IT-ready? And how do you gauge readiness?
In a new report, “2014 ACUTA/NACUBO/ACUHO-I State of ResNet Report: ResNet Trends & Practices Across Higher Education, [2]” more than 400 higher education institutions were surveyed to help admins and chief business officers address issues as the unprecedented growth in bandwidth and connectivity demands, budget restrictions, planning, policy considerations, staffing, and support.
The report is the third installment of a five year tracking study, and this year includes a wider scope, representing nearly twice as many stakeholders, with over three times the number of chief business officers responding compared to last year.
According to the report, the explosion of wireless connected devices and surging demands for “anytime, anywhere” connectivity, campuses nationwide are exploring ways to cope—all while trying to resolve conflicting priorities. The need for more planning, better communication and tighter security are being offset by processes and resources that have not kept pace.
“Schools are making strides in providing better coverage and bandwidth, but are grappling with a laundry list of needs—holistic planning, better communication between departments, tighter security—while processes like resource allocation and diagnostics haven’t kept pace,” said Dee Childs, chair of the ACUTA Environmental Scanning Committee and CIO at the University of Alabama.
“Administrators are trying to build better and bigger networks with yesterday’s tools. It’s our hope this study will provide a knowledgebase of practices and priorities to help administrators anticipate, plan ahead, and address the challenges as they scale infrastructure to meet demand.”
(Next page: Key findings of the report)
Campuses are exploring ways to accommodate demand for more bandwidth
- 75 percent of campuses allow an unlimited number of devices to be connected to the residential network.
- 25 percent more campuses offer speeds of 1 GB or more.
- The number of campuses that outsource some or all ResNet service to trim costs jumped from 22 percent to 32 percent.
- Tablets are expected to be the device that consumes the most bandwidth in the coming years.
More schools are providing robust wireless and mobile connectivity
- More than 61 percent of campuses now provide “robust” wireless coverage (four bars or more) throughout 81-100 percent of their campus; a 16 percent increase since 2013.
- Admin or academic areas rank at the top of wireless connectivity, while residential areas, such as residential room and dining facilities, ranked last.
More types of support are available, but 24/7 support is still scarce
- Institutions are using newer channels, such as texting, live chat, and social media to meet communication preferences.
- Only 13 percent of campuses provide 24/7 support; 30 percent provide more than 60 hours of support; and 32 percent provide 41-60 hours of support.
- Phone support and support through online documentation has increased for all devices over the past year.
(Next page: Coping with cost)
More plans are in place now, but better diagnostics and communications are needed for greater effectiveness.
- Campuses that have strategic plans in place grew by 27.8 percent, but one-third of schools still do not have a plan, and another 9 percent were unsure if they have a plan.
- One in five officers do not meet with their business, IT or housing counterparts to discuss the ResNet.
- Although 64.7 percent of housing officers and 68.3 percent of chief business officers would like to be able to benchmark their ResNet services, 55 percent of them do not have access to benchmarking data. Three out of four housing and chief business officers are unhappy with the data/reports they have received.
- Although security is valued highly by chief business officers, more than a third of schools do not have an Information Security and Internal Audits (ISO) team.
School adopting different models to cope with rising ResNet costs
- 56.2 percent of chief business officers and 40.3 percent of housing officers expect infrastructure costs to increase by 5 percent or more in the next two years.
- Only 38 percent reported an increase in ResNet funding, while 10 percent reported a decrease.
- One in five respondents indicated that they are not recovering any of the costs of support and management of their network.
- Small, predominantly private institutions fund ResNet centrally, and medium to large, predominantly public institutions use a fee/recharge system.
- Schools using mixed funding models and mixed resources (a combination of student fees and central university funds) experienced a decline of 12.2 and 16.3 percentage points respectively.
For the full report, including methodology, click here [2].
For an infographic on the finding, click here [3].