Funding Challenges Top Survey of IT Issues
By Ronald Roach
WASHINGTON
In the fourth annual “Current IT Issues Survey,” EDUCAUSE, the leading association for information technology in higher education, reports that IT funding challenges have become the No. 1 issue on three of the four survey measures for 2003. Released last month, the survey is based on responses from 34 percent (542) of the 1,620 primary representatives of EDUCAUSE member institutions. Primary representatives are usually the chief information or technology officers at their institutions.
The survey also found that security and identity management, in addition to placing high on measures of importance, are now among the top 10 issues in human and fiscal resource consumption, which suggests campuses are beginning to take action to address security challenges, according to EDUCAUSE officials.
Among issues whose rankings have changed significantly from 2002 to 2003 is maintaining and upgrading network and IT infrastructure, which rose from ninth last year to fourth in 2003 among strategic issues. Distance education has continued to diminish in rated significance, for the first time in four years not appearing on the top 10 list for any of the four survey measures.
The complete EDUCAUSE Current Issues Survey, with analyses of trends and institutional comparison tables, can be accessed in PDF format at
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