Dive Brief:
- Campus Technology released its annual earnings and job satisfaction survey of IT professionals at colleges and universities, revealing interesting trends about perceptions of job security and campus investment.
- The average annual IT salary was more than $77,800, but earnings among professionals at public institutions remained the same from the prior year, while private institution employee earnings increased by more than $8,000.
- An overwhelming majority of surveyed professionals reported satisfaction with their jobs and a positive outlook on the future of the industry, but 13% of professionals believe that IT is in slow decline at their institutions, and cite departmental budget constraints as the top area of dissatisfaction.
Dive Insight:
As technology continues to move towards the Internet of Things and colleges become an epicenter of its development and use, IT will become a more important element of campus administration. Presidents should constantly be thinking ahead of industry needs by working with CIOs to determine network and system vulnerability, insurance for potential hacks, and considering how to make data security part of the campus climate.
This emerging need could create increased demand for more IT executives to be in the pipeline for presidencies, and the work of computer science programs which can partner with strong IT departments may emerge as areas of academic strength as a result.