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.
Related Article: How Proactive Facility Maintenance Improves Campus Safety
Each year, UE members share their institution’s most pressing risks in the Top Risks Survey. The 2025 annual surveys, completed between May and Oct. 2025, include member responses from 267 colleges and universities and 214 independent and charter K-12 schools.
The 2025 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.
This article breaks down the top 10 self-reported risks for colleges and universities. The breakdown for K-12 schools can be found here.
Top 10 Risks Facing Colleges, Universities
Each risk below includes the percentage of respondents who said it was considered a top risk for their campus, and each respondent provided their top five risks. Here are the top 10 risks from 2025:
- Admissions and Retention (72%)
- Data Security/Cybersecurity (52%)
- Non-Title IX/VAWA Compliance (41.5%)
- Operational Pressures (30%)
- Facilities and Deferred Maintenance (27%)
- Funding/Financial Stability (24%)
- Student Mental Health (22%)
- Recruitment and Hiring (20%)
- Public Safety (17%)
- Athletics (11%)
Higher Education Risk Findings
Now let’s look at some of the key findings researchers pulled from the results that are related to campus safety/security:
- Admissions and Retention remained the top-ranked risk from 2024. While colleges and universities collectively experienced a 15% decline in enrollment between 2010 and 2021, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, four-year college enrollment has almost fully recovered as it is now just 1% below pre-pandemic levels. Among UE’s recommendations for improving admissions and retention is enhancing student mental health support.
- For the first time since the 2020-21 survey, Title IX was not identified as a top-10 risk. While it still ranked 12th in 2025, the researchers believe the drop reflects “educational institutions’ increasing concerns in other risks areas in addition to the relative clarity regarding Title IX obligations.”
- Compliance (Non-Title IX/VAWA) concerns jumped to the third-highest ranked risk in 2025. It also had the top 10’s biggest increase two years in a row, jumping from eighth to fifth to third. The researchers say the jump “[reflects] the complexity and pace of federal policy changes in higher ed.” Among UE’s resources for addressing compliance is a checklist for the Stop Campus Hazing Act.
- Athletics emerged as a top-10 risk for the first time. Among UE’s resources are links for addressing concussions in clubs and intramural sports, preparing for severe weather at outdoor athletic events, and accommodating students with disabilities in athletics.
Below is a chart to show how the ranking has changed over the last five years.
For additional resources on risk management, visit campussafetymagazine.com/tag/riskmanagement/.
