Higher education: where modern Identity management means business
The pace of technological change is hard to ignore for higher education institutions, where a myriad of systems and services must be available for access by multiple user groups – from faculty, staff and students to other academic institutions and the business community. A seamless experience is crucial to the open exchange of ideas that unlocks great education across these different user groups.
Additionally, faced with a lack of funding and growing competition, unlocking potential new sources of revenue in higher education is crucial. By building a reputation for a smooth digital experience, you can attract more students – particularly those more profitable overseas students, for who seamless remote access is crucial. While driving efficient processes and simplifying interactions for and between business partnerships will also boost profitability.
From a high of £15.78bn for the period 2009/10 to just £4.55bn for the period 2022/23, higher education is facing a downward trajectory in government funding.1
That pace of technological change mentioned earlier is also seeing a growing number of targeted cyber-attacks against the sector, and with increasing sophistication as bad actors turn AI to their advantage. According to the Department for Science, Technology & Innovation, higher education institutions are more likely to be affected by cyber-attacks; 97% identified a breach in the past year, and just under six in ten higher education institutions identified that they had been negatively impacted by a breach.2
Ok, those are some big challenges … how does Identity management help?
Where doesn’t it help? Ok, it doesn’t help students keep their dorms clean and tidy … but here’s all the areas Identity management does help, delivering those big business benefits that higher education needs to thrive.
- Keep up with digital transformation with a cloud-based system that’s scalable and adaptable – however your user base grows and wherever digital innovation takes you. Even expand campus sites without a worry for the implications of Identity management.
- Fend off cyber attackers and only let the right people in, with multi-factor authentication (MFA), threat detection and reporting. Comprehensive access policies give the capability to recognise and control segmented access rights for different scenarios. With automation technology, policy engines can deliver stronger Identity hygiene.
- Deliver a great experience every time – from initial selection to graduation. Even mergers and acquisitions don’t have to affect the user experience with an Identity solution that offers smooth integration with legacy systems.
- Automated workflows and lifecycle management for a smooth and consistent onboarding and offboarding process for every student, local or overseas.
- Free up valuable IT resource with centralised access management and adaptability that means developers can quickly deploy new or updated tools, freeing up time to focus on other critical IT areas.
- Build trust and reputation with a solution that gives you all the scope you need to protect personal data, stay within regulatory guidelines and bring security to all user groups.
With Okta Customer Identity Cloud (CIC) and Workforce Identity Cloud (WIC) you get all this, and more.
See how Notre Dame put us to the test when their legacy Identity solution could no longer meet their needs. With 80+ country logins identified by MFA, and 18,200 students, faculty and staff accessing apps, the switch to Okta SSO and MFA took just two days.
You can put us to the test too. See what great Identity management can do for your business.
Get your free 30-day trial of either CIC or WIC right here.
1 Public sector expenditure on tertiary education in the United Kingdom from 2009/10 to 2022/23.
2 Cyber security breaches survey 2024: educations institutions annex