For higher education institutions to remain competitive, it’s more important than ever to identify the essential elements of your modernization strategy. But digital transformation is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Colleges and universities face unique challenges compared to their enterprise counterparts.  These include legacy systems, blended roles and affiliations, non-hierarchical structures, dynamic populations, affiliations, and more.  

It may seem daunting, but your institution can handle many of these challenges by creating the right access management strategy and executing them with IAM and PAM solutions tailored for higher education. Most significantly, the power of automation from these solutions will free up your IT teams and resources to focus on long-term vision and strategic projects. 

Getting Started with IAM and PAM Tools

Building support for technology upgrades among decision-makers is complex for most colleges and universities, which can make it challenging to move forward with IAM projects. It can be an intimidating task, but schools can get their IAM programs up and running with the right approach. 

Starting small with introductory projects (i.e., beginning automation to clean up credentials and identities) can help build momentum. It will also give your IT team some use cases to put in front of leadership to illustrate ROI achieved and hopefully inspire confidence to further invest in these initiatives.  

Update Aging Homegrown and Legacy Systems 

Many colleges and universities are stuck with legacy and homegrown solutions which they have been using for years because of constrained budgets (along with siloed structures and processes). While these systems may have met the institution's needs at one time, they have grown inefficient over time and prone to increasing human error. The mastery of these systems is also often concentrated among a few people, and generally a declining population, creating further vulnerability. 

To combat risk and reclaim lost hours, schools need to prioritize updating legacy access management systems and processes. With a digital transformation strategy focused on a converged approach all of the critical actions of access, identity, and privilege, higher education institutions can better equip themselves to manage access and reduce the risk of unauthorized entry. 

Support Blended Roles  

It's not uncommon for someone in higher education to simultaneously take on several different roles (e.g., a student who is also a teacher's assistant or a staff member enrolled in classes). When you include external access, therefore, many users maintain many more than two roles (e.g., staff, student, parent, volunteer, and donor).   These overlapping personals are often called affiliations and are one of the biggest challenges faced by higher ed IAM programs. 

Well-designed IAM and PAM systems are versatile enough to support these multi-role requirements, preventing potential exposure of confidential information while simultaneously protecting the institution's cybersecurity. 

Simplify Non-Hierarchical Structures 

Decentralized architecture with frequently disparate systems is also a hurdle. Each department within a college or university may have a unique structure. This can create obstacles when aligning individual departments with overarching networks. Identities may not match up, or appropriate access may be granted incorrectly or blocked.  

A robust IAM and identity governance solution (paired with access management best practices) can organize and automate these contrasting frameworks. Such an implementation will minimize misappropriation and maximize interdepartmental access alignment. 

Automate Dynamic User, Faculty, and Student Populations Management 

In a typical four-year structure, colleges and universities turn over thousands of graduates each spring revoking entitlements and altering user profiles. In the fall, new entitlements must be assigned to thousands of more recently enrolled students. Graduate students introduce higher risk since these individuals are often also employees or pseudo-employees with access levels beyond the typical undergraduate population, and automatic off-boarding is crucial to maintaining the security and integrity of your system. 

This active, overlapping, and manual process is rife with human error and misappropriated entitlements. It can also be time-consuming and cause delays in onboarding, sapping valuable time, and limited bandwidth from IT staff and leadership. When the process breaks down, it creates orphaned and dormant accounts that increase risk and vulnerability to bad actors if left unchecked. 

Access management (including IAM and PAM) automates and augments this process by strengthening governance and reducing vulnerability. The implementation reduces inappropriate access rights and orphaned accounts by introducing automatic access deactivation and control processes.  

By automating these time-consuming tasks, schools can make IAM and identity administration processes more efficient, optimizing their team, improving the users' connection with the institution, and, ultimately, freeing them up for more innovative projects. 

The Power of a Step-by-Step Strategy 

Many higher education institutions may not have the budget, ability, or time to tackle a large-scale access management implementation all at once. Your organization may need to start small with high-impact projects that will get you the best ROI such as self-service password management, to relieve the burden on the help desk. 

Determine your modernization strategy, discover how to get there with actionable steps, and more with our eBook: Choosing a Modern Access Management and Governance Solution for Higher Education.