The Deferred Maintenance Crisis on Higher Education Campuses

The growing deferred maintenance crisis on higher education campuses

In the 2025 Survey of College and University Chief Business Officers (CBOs), conducted by Inside Higher Ed and Hanover Research, 169 CBOs of private and public higher education institutions shared their thoughts about the futures of their respective schools. Among the CBOs surveyed, 57% reported that they either somewhat or strongly disagreed that their institution will be better off financially within the next year. Chief among the concerns cited were federal policy, rising labor- and non-labor-related operating costs and general concerns about the state of the economy.

And in the 2026 Survey of College and University Presidents, also conducted by Inside Higher Ed and Hanover Research, 71% of the 430 surveyed college and university presidents reported in 2025 that they anticipated the political landscape would negatively impact the financial outlook across higher education. Eighty-seven percent reported in 2026 that they were already actively feeling the impact.

But why are so many of these college and university CBOs and presidents struggling to find optimism? For many colleges and universities, 2025 was already the convergence point for a number of threats to resilience in higher education. With the future of higher education already showing signs of strain and increasingly uncertain, further financial threats only serve to compound existing worries.

What are some of those concerns? When questioned about what they believed were the biggest risks to their institutions’ financial health, 49% of surveyed CBOs ranked declines in enrollment, state and federal cuts to funding and rising personnel costs as the top three areas of concern. Fourth on that list — with 35% of surveyed CBOs responding — were infrastructural and deferred maintenance costs.

What is deferred maintenance?

Deferred maintenance is defined as repairs to infrastructural assets which are delayed or backlogged due to budgetary constraints, lack of funding or other limits on resources. In higher education, projects that fall into this category tend to include technical systems like campuswide Wi-Fi and aging physical facilities, including whole buildings (e.g. dormitories or classrooms) or specific utilities or systems (e.g. HVAC or roofs).

When asked in 2025 how concerned they were about their institution’s ability to fund their identified deferred maintenance and facility needs, only 8% of surveyed CBOs said they weren’t at all concerned, while 74% were between moderately and extremely concerned. Worse still, 63% of responding CBOs said they expected to be able to fund less than 25% of their institution’s identified deferred maintenance expenses this year, with one percent saying they didn’t expect to be able to fund any at all.

Also, when college and university presidents were asked this year which risks have grown most for their institution in the previous 12 months, 26% of all respondents reported deferred maintenance as one of their top three, placing it fifth-highest out of the 12 risk categories identified.

In short, higher education sits amid a landscape of growing threats to resilience leading to increasingly pessimistic financial predictions, which have then driven more concern about the ability to fund deferred maintenance needs. Those concerns have largely come to fruition.

As more deferred maintenance projects remain unresolved over time, assets in need of maintenance or repair will only deteriorate and worsen in condition, causing the costs of repairs to escalate. This compounds the already rising threat to resilience that deferred maintenance presents for higher education institutions, further reinforcing the need to proactively address infrastructural maintenance instead of suffering the consequences of inaction.

How prevalent is deferred maintenance in higher education?

According to Moody’s, the estimated capital needed to make significant progress toward reducing deferred maintenance, upgrading facilities and constructing new projects that are considered essential for improving strategic positioning of rated colleges and universities is between $750 billion and $950 billion over the next 10 years.

However, this figure only addresses the needs of “rated” universities, which largely excludes local and community colleges. Most community college facilities are comparable with rated universities in terms of age and condition. Their oldest buildings average over 100 years in age, and many facilities approach 50 or 60 years of age, having been constructed during a period of rapid expansion in the 1960s and 1970s.

Because of their more dependable funding, the majority of rated higher education institutions are expected to invest more generously in deferred maintenance projects over the next several years, especially as their diversely sourced funding doesn’t force them to rely heavily on credit or debt for such projects. This also holds true for public universities in states with healthy levels of funding appropriated for capital investment projects.

But not all rated colleges and universities are so lucky. Moody’s estimates that roughly 30% of rated higher education institutions will have to make some difficult capital investment strategy decisions in order to remain competitive. With more limited financial support from donors and diminished credit ratings based on their lower financial reserves, higher levels of debt and limited growth projections, these institutions are likely to borrow even more just to keep pace.

More recently, some of the most highly-rated, well-funded and diversely funded colleges and universities are facing budgetary challenges due to unexpected changes in federal policy. For example, a number of prominent institutions have had federal grants and contracts frozen or challenged. University budget directors have had to quickly reallocate existing funds to more vital areas.

Risks associated with high levels of deferred maintenance

As the aggregate number of deferred maintenance projects in higher education grows over time, the threat to the resilience of both individual institutions and the sector as a whole grows in tandem. As colleges and universities continue to “kick the can down the road,” it can elevate risk in a number of ways:

Escalating repair costs

The majority of deferred maintenance projects deal either with the renovation of existing physical facilities or the building of new physical facilities. Therefore, the costs to complete these projects are directly tied to average construction costs, which have been increasing for years and are projected to keep growing.

According to Statista, the U.S. producer price index for concrete construction materials has climbed since 2011, spiking more drastically between 2020 and 2024. This surge is attributed to increasing costs of essential raw materials, supply chain issues and rising fuel costs, which affect both production and transportation to work sites. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, this trend has continued into 2026.

Labor costs for construction are also on the rise. According to the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) database, operated by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, wages and salaries for private industry workers in construction rose from 2001 through Q4 of 2025, only mildly plateauing during times of recession.

Simply put, the sooner that a college or university can find the funding to complete an existing deferred maintenance issue, the cheaper it will be to resolve. But as deferred maintenance projects linger year after year, funding the costs to complete them will only become more difficult, driving up the level of debt an institution may need to carry in order to do so.

Physical and personal safety

Residential and commercial buildings have recommended regular maintenance schedules to ensure that all elements of facility systems are in working order as they age. But by prolonging deferred maintenance projects for existing campus facilities in active use, higher education institutions increase the chances of a structural or system failure, putting students, faculty and guests at greater risk of injury or worse.

Building systems and utilities whose failures can have the most direct impact on safety include fire protection and suppression systems, elevators, HVAC systems and structural systems such as flooring or foundations. As all building systems are intimately connected, the failure of any one can have a cascading effect, quickly escalating a single-system failure and multiplying the accompanying danger.

Academic continuity

Regular building maintenance can sometimes require active facility users to forgo access for a period of time while systems are checked or repaired. This is quite typical, especially for larger physical facilities that undergo heavy use throughout the year. But in a university setting, the academic success of students and faculty depends on reliable access to facilities that enable the completion of coursework and research.

The longer that facility systems go unchecked, as when deferred maintenance becomes the norm, the more they deteriorate over time, causing repairs to become more costly to correct and displacing active users for a longer period of time while repairs are underway. This presents a jarring logistical break with the kind of continuity students and faculty need to stay focused on the academic task at hand.

Should a physical facility become inaccessible during the school year due to a system failure or prolonged repairs, this introduces a burdensome stressor on students’ ability to focus or excel, especially if the repairs require relocation from a dormitory. While facility closures for repairs are an inevitable part of building maintenance, making efforts to minimize disruptions — for example, by planning them around lower-traffic seasons, typically summer — can go a long way toward bolstering students’ chances to excel.

Cybersecurity

Deteriorating physical facilities not only create the potential for safety and continuity issues, but they also elevate the chances for a breach in security. If a campus building should fall into disrepair, or the access systems of that building are not regularly tested and maintained, the odds that a malicious actor could gain unauthorized entry only increases over time, putting everyone in that facility at risk.

This is also true for shared cyber spaces on campus, including college or university networks where personally identifiable information (PII) belonging to up to hundreds of thousands of campus-affiliated individuals may be stored. With growing cyber risk in higher education, the persistence of cybercriminals must be met with consistent reviews of cybersecurity protocols, cybersecurity trainings for individuals with access to the network and other preventive measures.

Strategies for higher education institutions to address deferred maintenance

In spite of the numerous roadblocks to clearing deferred maintenance backlogs, there are a number of actionable approaches that higher education institutions can take in order to gather the necessary resources to properly maintain their facilities. Resolving deferred maintenance issues improves the chances that students can have lasting, positive on-campus experiences and organizations can more fully achieve their long-term strategic objectives.

Some strategies to address deferred maintenance include:

• Adjust fundraising targets. It’s easier said than done. But the most straightforward way to gather the necessary resources to address deferred maintenance projects is to elevate fundraising goals and aim for more than what’s needed. A number of universities have successfully run campaigns to create new maintenance allocations by reaching out to alumni networks and other funding sources.
• Spend more prudently. With limited funding resources, sometimes the best course of action is to analyze and prioritize deferred maintenance on existing facilities based on the cost/benefit or ROI for each. Lead with projects to renew the facilities that are most important for your institution’s outreach strategy, whether it’s to draw in new students or solicit new or more diverse funding from new sources.
• Conduct a comprehensive audit. Perform an in-depth data analysis of all backlogged renewal projects that considers:
• The overall condition and condition of systems within each facility
• How well each facility operates for its assigned programs and functions
• The projected lifecycle of each facility should it become fully renewed
• Potential financial losses, should a total facility failure or system failure occur
• Potential risks to your institution’s long-term strategic goals, should a total facility failure or system failure occur
• Make a data-driven case. Use the analysis you performed to inform how you present the value of clearing deferred maintenance projects to budget directors or business officers. If possible, demonstrate how more regular maintenance of existing facilities can reduce the cost of future renewal projects, paying for themselves over time through savings.
• Win over decision-makers. When approaching budget directors or business officers, begin by seeking funding for only the most immediate, cost-effective or highest-ROI projects. When those projects successfully close, you’ll have built critical trust that you can rely upon when seeking additional funds for the next tranche of vital projects down the list.
• Cultivate a maintenance-oriented culture. Work with your campus maintenance or services teams to connect the value of regular facility maintenance to the larger goals of your institution. Show them the positive impacts of their work, both for the benefit of individual students and the fulfillment of your organization’s mission.

The role of business continuity software in deferred maintenance for higher education

Despite the fact that the majority of deferred maintenance projects in higher education are centered on the renewal and construction of physical facilities and spaces, digital technology can play a vital role in the successful management and completion of such projects. Solutions like business continuity management software can help you centralize information on facility conditions, initiate facility or system reviews, track active projects and analyze completed projects to assess their contributions to your business continuity and overall resilience postures.

The best business continuity management software should enable your institution to:

• Simplify your Business Impact Analysis (BIA) process: Gain a deeper understanding of the consequences of an emergency, incident or other disruption to your college or university, with step-by-step guidance to ensure the capture of rich, insightful data.
• Identify and map dependencies: Gather, visualize and track your institution's dependencies to make more informed decisions and more effectively mitigate imminent risks to your school's future.
• Devise a thorough and consistent recovery strategy: Prepare your higher education institution for any system or facility failure with response plans, roles, responsibilities and checklists, which can be deployed in seconds when needed.
• Test event scenarios: Run incident management drills to ensure the response teams at your college or university are prepared to handle any situation.
• Digitize plans: Replace paper-based, static business continuity plans with dynamic, digital plans that are easy to adjust, always up-to-date and available on any device.
• Gain valuable business continuity intelligence: Visualize snapshots of your business continuity posture in real time with flexible dashboards and analytics capabilities to uncover valuable insights and securely share them with team members or stakeholders.
• Generate custom reports: Inform decision-making for the future of your school with custom reports that can incorporate historical data, recommendations and automated approvals, and publish them or share via email.

Conclusion: Turning the tide on deferred maintenance

With new technologies gaining traction, it’s more important than ever for higher education institutions to help the next generation of leaders to develop vital critical thinking skills. Your success with this crucial endeavor is directly related to the ability of your campus — both its physical facilities and affiliated digital networks — to provide students and faculty with dependable spaces within which to live, work and study.

Only by maintaining an operational living and working environment can your institution continue to bolster its resilience, even in the face of uncertainty.

To start clearing your deferred maintenance backlog and prepare your campus for the road ahead, request a demo of Noggin today.