Transform. Protect. Respond: Building the capabilities for higher education's next chapter

Strategic partnerships lead, with 67% seeing significant opportunity, the sector's top-ranked growth area for a second straight year. Collaborations with employers, technology providers, research organizations and community stakeholders can create work-based learning, research hubs and stronger digital capabilities. Revenue growth is harder: only 35% see significant opportunity, as declining enrollment pushes institutions to attract nontraditional learners, build workforce-relevant credentials and improve retention.

Cyber threats lead at 4.09 on a five-point impact scale, followed by new risks from implementing AI (3.82), skills and talent acquisition and retention (3.72), regulatory change (3.63) and economic conditions (3.58). AI jumped from No. 10 to No. 2, and cyber returned to No. 1. Large user populations and valuable student, financial and research data make institutions attractive targets, and frontier AI models are helping attackers scale phishing and impersonation.

Start with people, then put guardrails around them. 60% of higher education leaders rank equipping the workforce as a top AI priority, followed by governance and accountability (56%) and data security (44%). That means role-based training and clear use cases for faculty, staff and student workers, plus clear ownership and oversight as vendors embed AI into tools already used across campus. Without guardrails, unsanctioned AI use can create institution-wide risk.

Only 20% report high confidence in their institution's ability to respond with agility, and 4 in 10 report limited confidence. Leaders are managing demographic shifts, funding pressures and rapid technological change within governance, budgeting and academic planning cycles built for a more predictable environment. They're often asked to commit funding before they have time to evaluate long-term implications, which makes agility one of the sector's biggest opportunities.

Third-party risks climbed from No. 19 to No. 10 among near-term concerns as institutions rely more on technology providers, cloud platforms and other partners. Responsibility for data privacy, compliance, instructional quality and intellectual property stays with the institution regardless of who delivers the service. The partnerships that create new growth also expand the risk surface, making consistent due diligence and oversight essential.