HigherEdRisk's Higher Education Risk Landscape 2024 Annual Retrospective
The higher education #risk landscape of 2024 proved to be a watershed year that showcased the need for strategic risk management. Risks are no longer discrete elements that "need to be insured;" instead, all risks are part of a complex interconnected system that demands proactive enterprise risk management to build institutional #resiliency.
As the headlines below clearly indicate, the traditional #risk #mitigation model of solely insurance-based solutions has become insufficient.
Below is the list I have composed based on our posts at #HigherEdRisk and those from major #higher #education news outlets.
2024 Top Headlines
The "FAFSA Fiasco"
Student mental health
Declining trust in Higher Education
Campus cross-fire - DEI, free speech, and student protests
Third-party risk
The "Enrollment Cliff"
Title IX's legal rollercoaster and regulatory changes
Continued fiscal challenges and college closures
Academia's AI revolution
The Three-Year Degree Pivot - will this be the future?
As I look back, I notice the following:
You cannot underscore the impact of public perception on higher education. Increased scrutiny concerning affordability, workplace preparedness, and trust is hitting institutions in the purse. From enrollment to endowments, executive leadership is being challenged by the government and in the court of public opinion.
Integrating risk insights across academic, operational, and financial domains is necessary to formulate strategic responses to institutions' legal, regulatory, and political challenges.
Boards and trustees must reframe risk from a compliance burden to an opportunity to showcase institutional resilience. The time is now to include risk management in your strategic conversations.
With a change in political climate and pressure on the Department of Education, 2025 will prove to be another dynamic year. #Boards and #fiduciaries must evolve from embracing standard risk mitigation to supporting risk leadership at all levels of the institution.
The time is now to make a paradigm shift and leverage enterprise risk management principles to combat the next generation of risk. We must also supplant the obsolete theory that risk is inherently negative and replace it with a new one where risk can equal opportunity for innovation and growth.
Let's get ahead of the curve!
