Top three trends higher education leaders will be discussing at EDUCAUSE 2025

There’s been some good news for college enrollment numbers this year, as total post-secondary enrollment grew by over half a million, showing a 3.2% upswing in spring 2025, compared to last year. 

One growth factor contributing to this increase is that our institutes of higher learning have responded to the desire for more connected campuses. There is a greater understanding among post-secondary leaders that the students they serve will demand academic excellence and a seamless digital learning experience powered by a foundational digital infrastructure. 

This understanding is reinforced by an acknowledgement of the fact that students and faculty will continue to expect universal, flexible accessibility and reinvented learning environments — live, virtual and hybrid. Our post-secondary institutes should position themselves with a seamless student experience as students expect the same, or better, digital experience and offerings as they’ve had at home or in their high schools.

Dependable and scalable connectivity

Schools are and will continue to seek new innovative ways to redesign older and out of date spaces, requiring upgrades to infrastructure to support the integration of advanced technologies into the learning spaces. Specifically, colleges and universities of all sorts need to:

• Ensure students have secure WiFi on campus and elsewhere for student online learning.
• Understand that student life experience is critical across college campuses today and institutions must meet the expectations of digital native students and the demands of new instructional models.
• Enable students with flexible, technology-rich environments that enable anytime, anywhere access to information.
• Deliver the expected ubiquitous mobility across campus including classrooms, lecture halls, libraries, dormitories, common areas and meeting spaces.
• Provide the connectivity and cybersecurity needed to support a student-services ecosystem for the entire student life cycle, from prospecting to enrollment, learning, job placement, alumni engagement, and continuing education.

Advanced cybersecurity is not an elective

The challenges of cybersecurity will continue to expand and become more complex as the threats become more sophisticated and increase in both frequency and severity. Meanwhile, the available cyberdefense solutions also improve at a rapid pace, requiring an increasingly technologically sophisticated approach to cybersecurity.

Educational institutions have reported being a prime target of cyberattacks.  Numerous pressures continue to make higher education a target for cybersecurity attacks. Large amounts of personal data, workforce gaps, and even sustainability efforts that increase the institution’s attack surface – all of these make higher education a target rich environment for bad actors in the cybersecurity world.

As these threats become more sophisticated and increase in both frequency and severity, campuses will require a more sophisticated approach to information security. Beyond the cybersecurity concerns of any organization, institutions of higher learning must follow government regulations to protect student’s data and other sensitive information. Many schools are opting for managed security solutions, that deliver automatic upgrades in response to emerging threat factors.

Artificial intelligence has increased the need for bandwidth 

Higher education has been forced to quickly react to AI, resigned to the fact that AI is here to stay, especially in higher education. Balancing the risks of incorrect or unethical use of AI and the benefits of AI tools to enhance the student experience continues to be debated throughout higher education. The realization for increased bandwidth needs is expected to follow closely behind the AI strategic plans being implemented now.

To deliver on the promise of AI, schools need  fast and reliable access to the internet, cloud services, and applications with a secure dedicated internet connection. Connectivity needs for AI usage focus on high bandwidth, low latency, reliable connections, and robust network infrastructure to manage the data generated and processed. Essentially, a network that can seamlessly support the constant flow of data needed for training and employing AI models. 

Fiber networks are well-suited for AI applications due to their high bandwidth and low latency capabilities. These networks can support the massive data transfer required by AI, and the best fiber networks offer resiliency and a higher resistance to interference. This is crucial for AI applications which require constant, reliable uptime to deliver optimal results.

Spectrum Business can help

Spectrum Business offers a wide range of managed or co-managed solutions to help colleges and universities build and support a secure, reliable network infrastructure from a single, trusted provider. With our managed network services offerings, we’ll partner with your institution as an extension of your IT department.

For more than 20 years, Spectrum Business has partnered with colleges and universities nationwide to provide education technology and tailored managed services. “We have been seeing increased data usage and demand on campus, and we needed to bolster our internet capacity. Partnering with Spectrum Business is really all about enabling our digital transformation,” says Anne Pacione, Chief Information Officer, St. John’s University.

Find out more about how our managed network services deliver the infrastructure, service and support to help you remove operating risks and set your campus infrastructure up for success.

Looking forward to seeing you in Nashville for EDUCAUSE 2025

We’re excited to meet with higher education innovators at the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference in Nashville, October 26-27. For more than 20 years, colleges and universities nationwide have partnered with Spectrum Business for managed services. Drop by and see us, and find out more about how you can remove operating risks and set your campus infrastructure business up for success.