The 2025 EDUCAUSE Top 10, Part 1: Prioritizing Key Challenges for Higher Education

From political upheavals to the new FAFSA release to abundant conversations surrounding the integration and regulation of artificial intelligence, a lot has happened in higher education between EDUCAUSE 2024 and 2025. Needless to say, audiences at this year’s EDUCAUSE conference have eagerly awaited the release of the 2025 EDUCAUSE Top 10 Issues to see what insights from the list might help in planning for the 2025-2026 school year.

The wait is over. The list has been released and—in the first part of our three-part series—we break down this year’s top 10 and explore what it might mean for your institution and how Jenzabar can help.

1. The Data-Driven Institution

As the enrollment cliff approaches and student demographics shift, institutions need to seek answers to critical questions: Which programs are in demand? Which students are at risk of dropping out? What strategies work best when attracting new types of students?

Data can illuminate these answers. In fact, data has become a powerful asset in higher education, enabling institutions to edge ahead in the enrollment race and to improve student outcomes. But leveraging data effectively requires a commitment to modernizing data infrastructure and committing to a culture of data-driven decision-making.

Jenzabar Analytics can be the solution that institutions need to convert complex data into understandable, actionable insights. Jenzabar Analytics comprises two modules, Jenzabar’s Data Cloud Premium—which unites data in a secure data lakehouse and enables institutional staff to extract insights using their business intelligence tool of choice—and the Jenzabar Analytics Suite—which collects data from multiple systems and curates it into a collection of highly visual dashboards.

Investing in robust data management and analytics capabilities like Jenzabar Analytics will ultimately enable colleges and universities to reduce inefficiencies, enhance operational effectiveness, and better serve their students and communities.

2. Administrative Simplification

Despite the uptick in digital transformation in the past four years, many colleges still struggle with outdated systems and cumbersome workflows. Departmental silos and continued reliance on manual processes hinder responsiveness and agility. By modernizing processes and putting data to work, institutions can reduce administrative burdens and free up resources to focus on core educational goals.

So how do institutions make this happen? One of the most effective ways to eliminate silos is to bring everything onto one platform. With single-vendor solutions—opposed to the patchwork of applications often associated with taking a best-of-breed approach to technology adoption—institutions can take advantage of integrated systems and operations and worry less about application and data silos.

Automation and workflow systems can further the advantages of integrated systems. Jenzabar Workflow, for example, is pre-integrated into the Jenzabar One platform and enables institutions to break down departmental silos and automate previously manual tasks. This improves operational efficiency and enhances overall experiences for students and staff, fostering a more productive academic environment.

3. Smoothing the Student Journey

In an increasingly digital world, meeting student needs and personalizing experiences is key to driving student retention and success. But what is it that students are looking for? A simplified enrollment and admissions process, more personalized communications, a centralized platform for accessing services, flexible learning options…the list goes on.

To meet these needs, institutions need integrated solutions that provide seamless access to student services and aggregate data in a way that presents a more holistic picture of student needs. Jenzabar designs its solutions with students in mind.

Jenzabar Student provides institutions with a complete set of fully integrated modules that make it easy to manage student information and services. Jenzabar Communications consolidates profiles and engagement histories and provides enhanced communication tools that enable institutions to personalize outreach and improve engagement. Jenzabar Retention aggregates student information from across an institution’s systems to create comprehensive student profiles and provide insight into student risk factors. Implementing systems like these can create a more supportive and seamless experience for students, improving both their satisfaction and success.

Click here to read the second part of our series.