ECAR (the Educause Center For Applied Research) released this research bulletin last week that examined Northeastern's effort to educate their IT staff on the differences between industry-oriented IT best-practices and the way universities work:
There is a dichotomy between the way higher education works and traditionally accepted best practices for information technology. The organizational construct of higher education is based largely on a need for fluidity and non-standardization, resulting from shared governance, the contractual nature of tenure, and a mission to expand knowledge. Together, these elements make the higher education environment very different from that of a hierarchical corporation. On the other hand, the very nature of information technology begs for standards. It is more economical to support a uniform, predictable IT infrastructure than a diverse infrastructure. An IT environment with a broad mix of applications, hardware, systems, business practices, and policies escalates, geometrically, the overall cost and skill level require for support.
The result of this dichotomy might be friction between IT staff and the academic community they serve.
Northeastern's training program (titled "Higher Ed 101: One of These Things is Not Like the Others") seems like a good thing. Especially telling was their finding that:
Most of the participants cannot name the senior administrators, nor do they know the job function. Without an understaning of how the university actually runs, it is very difficult -- if not impossible -- to understand how a given technology (or change in that technology) actually works in context.Northeastern's class could serve as a model for beginning to address the culture clash between industry IT best-practices and the "university way".
As universities look to address budget deficits and continue to provide world-class IT service, higher-ed IT will need to implement more centralized governance (as opposed to the current higher-ed "shared governance" model) in order to meet regulatory, security and administrative functions, while meeting tigher budget requirements. Accomodating the flexible and non-standardized needs of faculty and students while simultaneously finding ways to standardize IT processes and platforms where possible will be one of the bigger challenges ahead.
One suggestion I would add for schools implementing programs like Northeastern's is to create opportunities for dialogue between senior administrators and faculty and IT staff who have graduated from programs like "Higher Ed 101", so that both sides will recognize that they are really playing different positions on the same team.
