The evolving role of university CIOs
The expectations and constraints placed on Higher Education leaders, alongside those in the wider Public Sector, can vary widely from the common experiences across commercial organisations. IT leaders in particular need to understand how to interpret industry guidance and apply it appropriately.
Gartner’s 2025 CIO Agenda ebook1 reveals the top priorities and initiatives of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) for the year ahead, confirming that demands on IT continue to grow with continued pressure on them and their teams to:
Do more with less
Show value for money
Deliver execution excellence
Be cost-efficient
Drive technology innovation
No surprises there. However, while Gartner highlights universal pressures on IT leaders across industries, Xtravirt’s work with Higher Education institutions has revealed some distinct challenges facing university CIOs.
We have identified ten critical challenges that define the current landscape for IT leaders in Higher Education and require CIOs in this sector to think beyond traditional IT management and develop strategies that address both technological and institutional needs.
Ten critical IT challenges for Higher Education leaders
1. Replacement strategy for pandemic technology investments
COVID-19 forced many rapid IT projects and deployments to ensure operations could continue as best as possible. Across private and public sectors, these investments were largely a reaction to the current situation and not strategic or architectural decisions.
Three to five years on, those technologies are now approaching renewal. Universities must undertake a strategic review of these solutions, determining whether they were a short-term emergency solution, or whether they offer long-term value to the university’s technology ecosystem and the users it supports, perhaps needing focus to ensure they best meet this requirement.
2. Financial pressures and budget constraints
There continues to be significant pressure on public sector budgets with funding decreasing in real terms. When this is combined with the impact of declining international student numbers, whose higher fees form a crucial source of additional funding, downward pressure on investment and operational costs is being felt by IT budget holders in universities across the UK.
3. Procurement complexity
Along with budgetary pressure, the role of Procurement in IT sourcing selections is increasing dramatically, evolving the process of technology acquisition. The likely return to cost carrying a higher priority than impact or business value means that vendor discounts and promotions could drive engagements based on short-term rather than long-term benefit.
This shift has complicated and slowed down decision-making processes. Budget constraints are driving cross-project prioritisation, challenging lifecycle replacement decisions, and increasing a focus on managing the operational costs of cloud post-migration.
4. Skills and capacity limitations
Attraction and retention of top IT talent remains a challenge for the public sector and 2025’s financial pressures will only exacerbate this situation. If not addressed through investment or targeted relationships with strategic partners, this widening internal skills gap will impact operational activities and create further pressure on project delivery.
While short-term engagement of contractors may unlock urgent requirements, the high cost of this approach combined with the exit of knowledge on completion does not address the underlying issues.
5. Cybersecurity and risk management
With high profile global reputations alongside valuable research work, broad datasets, a large and diverse user base, and limited security resources, educational institutions remain prime targets for cybercriminals. New student cohorts and staff joining en masse at the start of the academic year, each unfamiliar with the environment and good security practices, create an easy hunting ground for those with malicious intent2.
Despite increasing investment in universities’ technological defences, there is an ever-present risk of a successful attack or ransomware event. Human error is a constant threat3 and the skills gap noted above plays into the hackers’ hands. Focusing on operational maintenance to control vulnerabilities and carefully prioritising improvements across front-line protection, monitoring, resilience and immutable ability to recover, can offer a cost-sensitive approach aligned to risk appetite.
6. Focus on strategic technology investment
CIOs in Higher Education, alongside others in the public sector and commercial segments, are starting to face increasing pressure to prioritise IT investments which directly benefit the wider goals and strategic imperatives of the institution. When organisations delay scheduled IT lifecycle work and operational changes due to these pressures, robust risk management and controls become essential for maintaining compliance with IT governance requirements.
7. Data centre, private cloud, public cloud and heritage applications
With constraints on budgets and investment programs, it’s apparent that Higher Education is going to be using a hybrid approach to infrastructure hosting for the foreseeable future. Even under this assumption, smart choices can accelerate the path to unlock strategic goals.
Private cloud solutions are providing public cloud-like functionality which, depending on the institution’s current environment, can offer greater financial certainty while unlocking self-service, container applications, open-source databases and Private AI services.
The cost of modernisation can be prohibitive for many applications which, while definitely not legacy, are very much heritage in nature. Most have been developed many years ago, but remain critical to business operations, albeit with very little developer or test knowledge and perhaps only one or two feature releases and updates a year. Moving these to cloud on a like-for-like basis without modernisation can allow for data centre closures to be accelerated without unnecessary risk or the cost of redevelopment.
8. Innovation – AI and emerging technologies
No longer just a buzzword, the Higher Education sector is keen to explore AI and the value that it can offer to students, academics and employees. From supporting back-office automation, to driving innovation and academic research, to the need to teach students how to develop AI solutions and use it to support their own studies, the potential use cases are almost impossible to quantify.
According to Gartner, over 80% of CIOs plan to invest in critical foundational capabilities including GenAI this year1, alongside other emerging technologies that reach way beyond the IT function’s traditional remit. The critical but costly topic of investing in GPU capacity is sure to challenge investment priorities, and balancing (or sharing) resources across AI and high performance VDI may provide a mechanism to ensure early tangible value.
Smart investment decisions are once again key in this space. The pace of change is accelerating, and IT leaders will be looking to ensure that this year’s projects are still providing a return next year.
9. Unlocking value
Many universities have made investments in technologies which, while successfully deployed to meet the initial use case, can offer significantly wider functionality than that currently being adopted. Where skills and resource constraints can be overcome, unlocking this potential and providing new business value without significant new investment can be an attractive option when under budgetary controls.
A great example of this is with a top 10 university and Xtravirt customer. They have moved funding from historic VDI platforms focused on remote access needs and reinvested into using the platforms to enable digital equity across their community of students and researchers, whether they are on campus, working remotely, or a member of their international student community.
10. Driving momentum
The natural implication of items 1-9, alongside changes in the vendor landscape and global markets, will be a slowdown in overall delivery momentum. CIOs are facing an uphill battle to deliver against the analyst priorities while managing across these constraints.
Many are pausing for breath, re-evaluating strategic priorities, negotiating with vendors, and waiting for market trends to settle down before reinvesting. Others are looking to take this opportunity to be ready for the future, ensuring they have the teams, partners and platforms that can flex to meet business priorities that are guaranteed to experience further change.
There is no simple guidance as to which approach will be best for any individual institution. CIOs will need to engage the wider leadership to negotiate priorities, inform strategy and agree outcomes for the year.
Delivering tangible business value
Acknowledging each of these challenges, understanding the impact that they will have this year, and using this insight to pro-actively inform project prioritisation and resource allocation will give IT leaders the best opportunity to deliver the highest value.
Over recent customer engagements across the public sector, we have not only worked to address these challenges but also work within them to create opportunities for business growth and innovation wherever possible. Our approach recognises that IT in Higher Education is no longer just a support function, but a critical driver of value, innovation, and competitive advantage operating within a complex business environment.
Xtravirt focuses on collaborating with customers to achieve four key outcomes:
1
2
3
4
A holistic vision for IT leadership
As we enter this complex landscape in 2025, Higher Education IT leaders must navigate these challenges and wherever possible transform solutions into strategic opportunities. Having the confidence and skills within their organisation to drive this internally, or finding one or more strategic partners that bring the right specialist capabilities to collaborate on the journey, will be key to long-term success.
Take the next step
Contact our team today to discuss your IT challenges and hear how we can support your journey across the IT lifecycle. Email us at HigherEducation@xtravirt.com.
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