Connecting campus data: Solving age-old higher ed challenges in new ways
September 25, 2025 / Mike Thomson
Short on time? Read the key takeaways:
- Higher education faces enrollment and budget pressures that require both operational efficiency and enhanced student experiences to survive.
- Universities possess all necessary student data across systems, but disconnected silos prevent the personalized, app-level service students expect.
- AI allows universities to integrate unstructured data first and organize it later, solving master data management challenges in new ways.
- Strategic investment staging and partnerships with higher education experts can make campus modernization achievable despite financial constraints.
Higher education is facing mounting pressure. The enrollment cliff continues to steepen as demographic shifts reduce the traditional college-age population.
Budget cuts are forcing universities to operate with constrained resources while competition intensifies for every prospective student. Universities must improve operational efficiency while enhancing student experiences, which is a dual challenge threatening institutional survival.
These pressures expose a fundamental problem. Disconnected systems prevent effective student service and operational efficiency. What's different now? Advanced technology helps solve these age-old problems in previously impossible ways.
The same data challenges, new solutions
Universities have the data needed for personalized student experiences, including academic records, financial aid status, housing, dining preferences, and course performance, but for many institutions, these systems operate in isolation. This is a classic master data management challenge. Traditional approaches required standardizing data formats and establishing integration points before seeing benefits.
The result? Students expect real-time, app-like personalized service but encounter bureaucratic silos. A struggling student might miss financial aid deadlines, fail to register for housing, and fall behind in coursework. Counselors lack visibility into this complete picture, preventing timely intervention. Since student recruitment costs exceed the cost of retaining a student, these missed opportunities compound financial pressures on already-strained budgets.
The institutions that have implemented modern integration platform as a service (iPaaS) solutions to integrate systems and build modern master data hubs will have a significant advantage over those colleges and universities with siloed data.
AI changes the equation
AI changes this completely. Modern iPaaS solutions that leverage AI bring unstructured data together first, then organize it. This eliminates the need for perfect alignment before deriving value.
Consider the possibilities when data flows seamlessly. Library usage patterns might show that students primarily need study space rather than physical books. Universities can create distributed group study hubs to optimize campus space. AI can be used to build automated course tutors and counselors through the ingestion of course content and textbooks in multiple languages, reducing costs while improving student and faculty satisfaction.
An AI-powered integration system knows students' degree requirements; tracks completed coursework and identifies an optimal path to degree completion. It leverages degree audit and student information system data to suggest course schedules based on academic interests, preferred times, and graduation timelines while considering transfer credits and prerequisites.
When students are at risk of dropping out, connected systems and integrated data reveal why, be it language barriers, conceptual issues, financial aid challenges, or a need for additional resources. The system can recommend course withdrawals and alternative pathways. AI translation can interface with students in their preferred language, personalizing content delivery and improving learning outcomes. Currently, at many institutions, students navigate these decisions alone despite universities having the necessary information.
This approach mirrors successful retail customer loyalty strategies – of creating exceptional, personalized experiences that turn customers into brand advocates. Students who receive this level of individualized attention become lifelong institutional champions, recommending the university to prospective students, contributing as engaged alumni, and enrolling their own children. In retail terms, universities transform one-time transactions into lifetime customer value.
Making transformation achievable
The challenge becomes implementation. Universities facing financial pressure must "invest to reduce run costs," staging investments strategically while aligning recovery timelines with spending cycles. Financial engineering can structure infrastructure improvements over time, allowing institutions to realize operational savings while paying for modernization.
Speed to optimization depends on current system integration and data centralization. Universities with modern iPaaS platforms and AI capabilities achieve results faster and require smaller investments. Each institution's path varies based on staffing, funding, existing IT maturity, and data quality.
Large university and college systems with multiple campuses should identify commonalities first, such as establishing shared standards for functions benefiting from consistency, then adding localization where valuable. This maximizes efficiency while preserving flexibility.
Success requires partnerships with organizations like Unisys that understand higher education's unique complexities and can devise customized implementation strategies. Organizational change presents challenges since academic departments and administrative functions often operate independently.
The urgency of now
Universities can no longer defer these decisions. Demographic shifts causing the enrollment crisis demand immediate action, and institutions that delay modernization risk losing competitive position.
At EDUCAUSE this year, we'll demonstrate how connected campus ecosystems work in practice, showcasing solutions that span data integration, AI-enabled student experiences, and digital workplace capabilities that create measurable institutional value.
