2024 Higher Education Year in Review

Colleges and universities continue to serve their mission and educate students while navigating shifting demographics, new financial models, technological innovations, and more. While these and other challenges impacted higher education in 2024, staff also found opportunities to improve and transform business with technology to better serve students and their institutions.  

Connecting Academic and Administrative Services to Improve Student Experience

Student success occurs inside and outside the classroom. Routine interactions like making a payment or asking for help shape the campus experience and impact student decisions to stay enrolled or leave an institution.

Colleges and universities are examining everyday interactions to identify experiences that drive engagement and enrollment and improve aspects that contribute to students stopping out. A recent survey of higher ed leaders, Student Success Priorities & Best Practices, shows how administrators are analyzing data to determine positive and negative indicators of student success, and using these insights to develop better policies and processes.

A major insight across institutions is how academic and administrative services intersect to affect student outcomes. For instance, Fitchburg State University discovered that billing practices impact retention, such as cumbersome payment processes, due dates, and other policies and procedures that create barriers to enrollment. California College of the Arts connected academic and administrative leaders to indicators of enrollment, and implemented proactive strategies that reduce summer melt and ensure students get to campus in September.

Once enrolled and on campus, students need help understanding and navigating the financial aspects of higher education to stay enrolled. Canisius College uses an innovative solution and improved processes to bridge the gap between academic advising and the student financial services office, leading to more students receiving financial guidance and continuing their
education.

Changes to Regulations and Increasing Standards

New and updated regulations continue to be announced and implemented by state, federal, and industry authorities, in addition to policy changes at individual institutions. For the business office, as of July 2024 the US Department of Education prohibits withholding transcripts of students who have used federal financial aid to pay for their education. In addition, the Consumer Financial Protection Board is increasing scrutiny of practices surrounding past due balances, including communications to students, terms and conditions of payment plans, transcript withholding, and more.

Standards for security continue to be raised by a variety of groups. On March 31, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) version 4.0 took effect, with new standards that address risks facing higher education such as payment fraud, security vulnerabilities, vendor management, and more. Some states, like Texas, are developing robust security programs for entities that contract with public agencies, including colleges and universities, while other states are joining standard risk management programs, like StateRAMP.

Refunds and disbursements are evolving in response to regulatory changes and improved solutions built to process these payments faster and streamline their management.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is increasingly the industry standard for account access, required by vendors, industry organizations, and various laws. Learning how MFA works and how to support MFA use on campus is key to improving security and achieving compliance.

Importance of Privacy, Security, and Fraud Management

The increasing reliance on technology, while making our lives easier, continues to raise privacy concerns and present new security threats and cyber crime tactics. It’s important to stay up-to-date on the evolving forms of fraud to prevent malicious fraud risks and manage “friendly” fraud to succeed in the dispute process.

Balancing the competing demands of privacy, security, and compliance is crucial, but implementing security and privacy principles into campus systems will help develop them to be strong and compliant. In addition, it's critical to select solutions that are designed to be private and secure by third party vendors with a commitment to privacy, security, compliance, and fraud management.

Transforming the Campus and its Practices

From using AI to employing cloud services, higher education is undergoing a number of digital, financial, and operational transformations. Colleges and universities are simplifying the business of higher ed by using technology that connects systems and solutions into a platform.

Having a modern e-commerce system helps all departments, offices, and groups on campus, and enables your campus to connect with off-campus and third-party vendors. Automated, streamlined, and customized processes make it easier to take payments in person and online for goods, services, registrations, deposits, donations, ticketing, and more.

A modern e-commerce system also diversifies sources of revenue beyond traditional streams such as tuition and fees, investments, and government grants and appropriations. By empowering alternative revenue streams, colleges and universities are investing in their campus’ ability to conduct business and improve finances, amongst many other reasons to develop alternative revenue streams and take advantage of diverse revenue opportunities on your campus.

Campus IDs continue to be powerful multi-use tools that higher ed institutions put to creative ends to improve campus experience and operations. Campus IDs are ready-made to develop alternative revenue sources through their use by students, staff, and visitors on and off campus. All of the activity facilitated by campus IDs collects and generates valuable data administrators can use to transform their campus. The data leads to insights that can improve everything from door access and security to the optimal location, hours, and staffing of various offices and services.

All of the above is made possible by technology that interoperates, such as integrations between the student information system (SIS), enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, and vendor solutions. Technologies that seamlessly connect across campus increase the efficiency and productivity of staff and configure systems and solutions to best serve an institution’s specific needs.

More to Study and Review

The trends of 2024 in student success, privacy and security, regulations, and technology will continue to influence the business of higher education in 2025 and beyond. Picking up best practices and developing their use on campus will help colleges and universities address these trends and prepare for what’s next.

Want more insights from 2024? Browse and search our full content library in our Trends section.