The Hidden Costs of Unmanaged Identities in Higher Education

As higher education institutions navigate tighter budgets, the continued growth of SaaS adoption introduces pressing financial and security risks.

From classroom collaboration tools to learning management systems, the average college or university now relies on dozens, sometimes hundreds, of SaaS applications to operate. But without a strong Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution in place, this digital sprawl can quickly spiral into license waste and risk exposure, which are two things schools can’t afford.

SaaS Adoption Isn’t Slowing Down

In 2024, 88% of U.S. higher education institutions had moved at least a quarter of their applications to the cloud,1 a dramatic increase from just a few years earlier. As institutions continue prioritizing flexibility, scalability, and remote learning capabilities, SaaS will only become more central to operations.

But with that shift comes complexity. Each new tool means another set of accounts to manage. In many cases, that work is spread across decentralized departments, each with its own processes and timelines.

Unmanaged Accounts = Uncontrolled Costs

Every SaaS application comes with a cost, and every account that goes unmanaged adds to it. When a staff member changes roles or leaves the institution entirely, their SaaS access often lingers in the background—unused but still billed.

According to recent data, large organizations spend an average of $4,800 per employee per year on SaaS tools², with roughly 25–30% of licenses going unused or forgotten.³ For mid-sized colleges and universities, that can translate to hundreds of thousands of dollars wasted annually on dormant accounts and misaligned entitlements.

When budgets are under pressure, this kind of overspending isn’t just inconvenient—it’s unsustainable.

Dormant Accounts Create Real Risk

Beyond the financial impact, unmanaged identities pose a serious security concern. Orphaned and dormant accounts—especially those with elevated permissions and access to critical applications—can become prime targets for attackers.

Higher education environments are particularly vulnerable, given the mix of faculty, staff, students, alumni, contractors, and research collaborators cycling in and out of systems. Without centralized IAM, keeping track of who has access to what becomes a challenging task. This results in excessive access rights, stale accounts, and a broadened attack surface.

Why IAM Is No Longer Optional

The path forward is clear: higher education needs a robust IAM solution that aligns access with institutional affiliations, reduces waste, and minimizes exposure.

Enter RapidIdentity by Identity Automation.

RapidIdentity is designed specifically to meet the complex needs of higher education. Here’s how it addresses the problem:

• Birthright Access by Affiliation: Each user receives automatic, appropriate access based on their role at the institution, whether they are students, staff, or contractors.
• Dynamic Entitlement Management: When a user’s affiliation changes (e.g., a staff member is no longer a student), RapidIdentity automatically adjusts or revokes access to entitlements that are no longer appropriate.
• Comprehensive Deprovisioning: Once a user no longer has any active affiliations, their access to all connected SaaS applications is fully decommissioned. This closes the loop on license sprawl and reduces potential attack vectors.
• Flexible Entitlement Requests and Reviews: Using a convenient, self-service web portal, users can request additional access when needed. Approvals can be time-bound and subject to review and certification, ensuring temporary needs don’t become long-term vulnerabilities and a drain on financial budgets.

Final Thoughts

In today’s higher education IT environment, unmanaged digital identities are not just an operational headache, but a costly liability. As SaaS usage accelerates and budgets tighten, institutions must act decisively to control both costs and risks.

RapidIdentity offers the structure and automation that higher education institutions need to stay secure, stay compliant, and spend smarter.

Are you ready to modernize your organization’s IAM? Request a demo of RapidIdentity, the IAM platform designed specifically for educational institutions.

Bryan Christ is an IT professional with almost three decades of industry experience. He has worked for a number of high-profile companies including Compaq, Hewlett-Packard and MediaFire. After serving two years in a fractional CIO role in the Greater Houston area, Bryan shifted into the identity and access management (IAM) arena and has spent the last several years focused on Higher Education.

1 https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2025/02/skys-limit-cloud-computing-higher-education
2 https://zylo.com/reports/2025-saas-management-index/
3 Gartner, Magic Quadrant for SaaS Management Platforms, May 2025