Two new reports from United Educators (UE) highlight the top self-reported risks facing colleges, universities, and K-12 schools today.
UE is an organization that helps educational institutions identify, prevent, respond to, and recover from risks. It provides liability insurance and risk management services to nearly 1,300 members representing thousands of schools, colleges, and universities throughout the United States, according to its website. Founded as a risk retention group in 1987, UE is owned and governed by the educational institutions it insures.
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Each year, UE members share their institution’s most pressing risks in the Top Risks Survey. The 2024 annual surveys, completed between August and December 2024, include member responses from 194 colleges and universities and 148 independent and charter K-12 schools.
The 2024 reports reveal the top risks across the UE membership and notes changes over the last several years. UE’s reports also offers resources for each risk as well as suggestions for mitigating the risks. Be sure to check those out in both reports.
Let’s break down the top 10 self-reported risks by campus type. Each risk includes the percentage of respondents who it was considered a top risk for their campus.
Top 10 Risks Facing Colleges, Universities
While not all risks below are directly related to campus security, we are going to include all 10 to provide a full picture of the challenges facing colleges and universities today. However, of the risks included in the list, six of them are directly related to physical or data security.
Here they are:
- Enrollment: Risks affecting new student admission and retention of current students (71%)
- Data Security: Information technology risks such as data breaches, phishing, accidental disclosure of personal data, ransomware, and hacking (56%)
- Operational Pressures: Risks related to financial stability, the institution’s business model, and constraints on the institution’s processes (42%)
- Recruiting and Hiring: Risks related to maintaining a talented staff and faculty workforce (31%)
- Regulatory and Legal Compliance (Non-VAWA/Title IX): Risks involving noncompliance with federal, state, and local regulations and other elective accountability authorities (29%)
- Facilities and Deferred Maintenance: Risks concerning outdated facilities and new construction, including inadequate facilities to achieve the institution’s mission (28%)
- Student Mental Health: Risks related to students’ mental and emotional well-being, including mental illness and suicide (21%)
- Funding: Risks to core revenue streams (18%)
- Public Safety: Risks related to crime and safety for the institution community and guests, including campus assailants (16%)
- General Premises Security (TIE): Risks of injury and death caused by slips, trips, falls, and other campus hazards, including public use of facilities (12%)
- Title IX (TIE): Risks related to sex discrimination (12%)
- Political and Societal Pressures (TIE): Risks related to public distrust of education, political attacks, and global instability (12%)
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Higher Education Risk Findings
Now let’s look at some of the key findings researchers pulled from the results.
- Enrollment regained its spot as the biggest risk for colleges and universities, up from 67% in 2023.
- Data security, which topped the list on 2023, had the biggest decline of 17%.
- Regulatory and legal compliance saw the biggest increase, up 8% from 2023. The report notes this “may reflect federal and state governments’ increased attention on higher education.”
- Nine risks in 2024 also ranked among 2023’s top risks.
- Two risks — Public Safety and General Premises Safety — were new to this year’s top 10 list. General Premises Safety jumped nine spots.
- This was the first year political and social pressures were added to the survey as the country prepared for the 2024 presidential election.
- Research universities were more likely to cite data security, athletics, and academic research as top risks and less likely to cite enrollment and facilities and deferred maintenance as top risks.
- This year’s survey also asked respondents to rate emerging risks drawn from topics of growing concern. “Adversarial Regulation” and “Political Climate and Instability” were perceived as two of the most significant emerging risks.
Top 10 Risks Facing K-12 Schools
Similar to higher education institutions, seven of the risks listed below for private K-12 schools and charter schools are also directly related to physical and data security.
While fewer K-12 schools listed it enrollment and data security as their top risk compared to higher education institutions, they still made the number one and number two spots on both lists.
- Enrollment: Risk affecting new student admission and retention of current families, including international students (57%)
- Data Security: Information technology risks such as data breaches, phishing, accidental disclosure of personal data, ransomware, and hacking (36%)
- Operational Pressures: Risks related to financial stability, the school’s business model, and constraints on the school’s processes (34%)
- Recruitment and Hiring: Risks related to maintaining a talented staff and faculty workforce (32%)
- Public Safety: Risks related to crime and safety for the school community and guests, including campus assailants (28%)
- Facilities and Deferred Maintenance: Risks concerning outdated facilities and new construction, including inadequate facilities to achieve the school’s mission (25%)
- Student Mental Health: Risks related to students’ mental and emotional well-being, including mental illnesses and suicide (21%)
- General Premises Safety (TIE): Risk of injury and death caused by slips, trips, falls, and other campus hazards, including public use of facilities (20%)
- Sexual Misconduct (TIE): Risk of unwanted sexual behavior, including employee and volunteer misconduct and sexual abuse of minors (20%)
- Transportation: Risk of damage, injury, and death related to vehicle use (18%)
K-12 Campus Risk Findings
Here are some of the key findings researchers pulled from the K-12 results.
- Seven of the top 10 risks for 2024 were also top risks in 2023. However, all seven were cited by a smaller percentage of respondents.
- Among top 10 risks, only the last three (Sexual Misconduct, General Premises Safety, and Transportation) received more responses than in 2023.
- General Premises Safety increased the most by 17% since 2023. The report notes this “suggests schools are focusing risk management efforts on incidents that threaten student safety and drive liability losses, like injuries and sexual abuse.”
- Data Security, Public Safety, and Transportation reached their highest ranking since the 2018-2019 survey.
- Data Security reached its highest-ever ranking for independent and charter K-12 schools.
- Boarding schools were more likely to identify Transportation and Student Mental Health as a top risk, “possibly reflecting the additional time students spend in their care,” the report says.
- This year’s survey also asked respondents to rate emerging risks drawn from topics of growing concern. Nearly two-third of respondents subsequently identified “Employee Well-Being” as one of their two more significant emerging risks.
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