Tambellini Reveals the 2025 Higher Education Market Trends and Leaders

Modernizing administrative technology and processes remain a top priority for resource-constrained higher education institutions as they seek to increase agility and resiliency in their operations. As institutions assess their strategies for maximizing limited resources, understanding the market dynamics and institutional trends driving higher education modernization is crucial for technology investment planning and strategy.

Institutions can get unprecedented detail into how higher education institutions are modernizing their administrative systems in Tambellini’s 17th annual Market Share, Trends, and Leaders Reports. Representing more than 20 years of unbiased data and research, this report series delivers comprehensive analysis of the higher education student, financial management, and human capital management systems markets.

Tambellini tracks all administrative systems vendors selling to higher education across North America and globally. These reports focus on vendors with at least 1 percent of the total US higher education market share for student, finance, and HCM systems.

2025 Student Systems Market Share, Trends, and Leaders

In 2014, only 1% of all historical student system selections were for SaaS-architected solutions. By the end of 2024, 30% of all historical student system selections were SaaS-architected solutions. The leading student system vendors selected by US higher education institutions in 2024 were Anthology, Ellucian, Jenzabar, Oracle, Populi, Thesis, and Workday.

2025 Finance and HCM Systems Market Share, Trends, and Leaders

Dave Kieffer, Principal Analyst at Tambellini and coauthor of the report series, predicts that SaaS-architected finance and HCM solutions are poised to dominate the market, with adoption rates nearing 90% by 2035. The leading financial management and human capital management vendors selected by US higher education institutions in 2024 were Anthology, Ellucian, Jenzabar, Oracle, and Workday.

Hear from the Report Authors

Institutions can take steps now to improve their future readiness for successful system upgrades or replacements. In this on-demand webinar, Dave Kieffer and Senior Analyst Matthew Winn, PhD, share their takeaways from the reports and offer guidance on advancing sustainable infrastructure improvements during uncertain times.

Watch the On-Demand Webinar.

Access the Full Research Reports

Tambellini clients can access the full research via the Tambellini Peertelligent® and Market Insights℠ portals for a comprehensive picture of current higher education administrative system market activity, including:

• Trends driving institutional decisions and vendors’ product investments.
• Current and historical product selection trends based on market sector and institution size.
• The finance, HCM, and student systems most often selected by institutions in 2024.

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