Higher Education IT Skills Gap: How Colleges Are Restructuring Technology Teams for 2026

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Colleges are having a very real conversation behind the scenes right now. Not about budgets. Not about new platforms. But about people. Higher education leaders are looking at their teams and quietly asking the same question: Do we have the skills we need for the institution we are becoming?

For many campuses, the honest answer is complicated.

Higher education is modernizing faster than its IT workforce can evolve. Longtime staff are retiring. Modern technologies are outpacing old roles. And the people who understand both the institution and the systems are becoming harder to find. As 2026 approaches, leaders realize that campus technology’s future will depend less on what tools they buy and more on how they rebuild the teams who support them.

Why So Many Campuses Suddenly Feel Understaffed

Even institutions with “full” IT departments are feeling stretched thin. The work today looks nothing like the work of even five years ago. Student experience teams need more integrations. Finance and enrollment rely heavily on data. Academic units require more flexible digital learning support. Yet the size of many IT teams has barely changed.

Retirements are accelerating, private sector jobs are pulling technical staff away, and internal hiring pipelines are shrinking. Leaders face a workforce gap growing at the same pace as their digital priorities.

The Work Changed Overnight but the Job Descriptions Didn’t

Modern campus systems demand skills that most traditional IT roles were never designed for. Cloud-native infrastructure, advanced analytics, workflow automation, identity governance, and API-driven integrations now define daily operations.

But many teams were built around legacy systems and on-premise tools. As a result, the gap between what campuses need and what teams are trained for is widening, not slowly but rapidly. Institutions do not just need “more people.” They need new types of skills.

When the Old Team Structure No Longer Fits the New Institution

Colleges aren’t simply short-staffed. They are structurally mismatched.

The historical model of separate system owners, standalone specialists, and siloed departmental support teams is becoming harder to maintain. The work requires collaboration, data fluency, and shared ownership. Many institutions are now asking a bigger question: What should an IT team look like for the next decade?

Here are the most common shifts happening across campuses:

1. A Shift from Departments to Flexible, Mission-Aligned Teams

Instead of rigid departmental lines, institutions are creating teams built around service areas such as student experience, data and reporting, academic technologies, and enterprise operations. These teams blend functional, technical, and analytical expertise.

This makes IT more responsive and removes bottlenecks created by isolated system owners. It also helps institutions focus on outcomes rather than individual platforms.

2. Automating the Work No One Has Time for Anymore

With more requests and fewer people, campuses are increasingly turning to automation to bridge the gap. Routine tasks like ticket routing, account provisioning, monitoring, alerts, and reporting are being automated so staff can focus on higher-impact priorities.

Automation is no longer a project. It is becoming an operational requirement.

3. Redefining What Must Stay In-House

Institutions are being more intentional about which roles require internal ownership. Strategic alignment, institutional knowledge, governance, data stewardship, and academic partnership roles are becoming core positions.

Meanwhile, highly specialized roles with narrow skill sets are harder to justify as full-time hires. Leaders are being clearer about what only their staff can do and what can be supplemented more effectively.

4. Borrowing Specialized Talent Instead of Hiring for Every Role

Cloud engineering. Banner® and Colleague® expertise. Integration specialists. Identity engineers. Analytics developers. These skills are expensive to hire and harder to retain.

Many institutions are shifting from “staff every skill” to “access every skill.” This blended model gives teams the depth they need without overextending hiring budgets or creating single points of failure.

5. Turning Continuous Learning Into a Non-Negotiable

The institutions making the most progress have one thing in common: They are treating professional development as a strategic pillar, not a perk. Certifications, learning pathways, and cross-training are helping IT staff evolve into hybrid roles that mix functional knowledge with technical agility. This strengthens teams and reinforces retention during national IT workforce scarcity.

What Leaders Need to Get Right Before 2026 Arrives

The most successful institutions are the ones building teams that can grow with their needs. That requires three major shifts in mindset.

1. Plan for skills, not positions: Static org charts are giving way to skills inventories and competency frameworks. Leaders are mapping what skills the institution will need in 2026 and determining how to build or access them.
2. Make data and integration capabilities foundational: Every major initiative now depends on clean, connected data. Institutions that invest in these skills early will have a competitive advantage in enrollment, budgeting, academic planning, and student success.
3. Blend internal expertise with external depth: The future of campus IT is a hybrid model where internal staff provide institutional strategy while external partners provide specialized technical depth. This approach preserves continuity and accelerates modernization.

Building a Team That Can Grow with the Institution

The IT skills gap is not just a hiring challenge. It is a strategic inflection point. The teams that supported higher education in the past are not the teams that will carry it forward. Institutions that take this moment seriously by restructuring roles, investing in people, and building flexible operating models will be the ones ready for 2026 and beyond.

A future-ready technology team is not defined by size. It is defined by clarity, capability, and the strength of the partnerships that support it.

Preparing for the Next Step

Institutions preparing their technology teams for 2026 can benefit from strategic support across infrastructure, ERP management, cloud operations, and 24×7 service delivery. To explore how OculusIT can help fill skill gaps and strengthen your IT operations, contact us today: www.oculusit.com