How a Next-Gen Campus CMMS can Solve Higher Education’s Toughest Challenges

September 17, 2025

6 min read

Universities and colleges have complex ecosystems, where you must balance academics and operations while maintaining the on-campus experiences students are looking for. And the environment is only getting more demanding. Sprawling grounds, historic buildings, cutting-edge research facilities and on-campus residences mean you need a sophisticated level of coordination and strategy to manage the sheer scale and diversity of these spaces.

As the higher education landscape changes and demands around campus offerings and capabilities evolve, you need a more tactical approach to facilities management. A vital tool for your operation is a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). These systems can help you shift from reactive maintenance to strategic, data-driven planning and decision making.

In this article, we delve into four critical trends pushing campus transformation forward and how a CMMS can help solve your challenges and address emerging needs.

4 Trends Shaping On-Campus Transformation

Fueled by the need to ensure safety, sustainability and high-quality experience, your facilities management must expand to a holistic approach. Here are four trends facilitating that transformation and how tech helps drive it.

1. Hybrid Learning Models

Hybrid learning has further changed how facilities are used as today’s students expect more flexible and accessible learning options. Data shows that 82% of students are choosing hybrid learning models for the flexibility they provide, so classrooms and other facilities need to be adaptable for both in-person and remote collaboration. On top of this, other industry data found that more than half (53%) of students and faculty prefer options for on-site learning and teaching.

It's not likely that preferences for hybrid environments will go away anytime soon and in fact we may see this trend expand even further. To make your campus a place people want to be requires reimagining how space is used to support more flexible learning, study and socialization.

2. Budget Optimization

Financial pressures in higher education are heating up due to declining enrollment, rising operational costs and mounting expectations. You’re likely being asked to do more with less and focus on cost efficiency as a top priority, especially as cost containment serves as a key driver in facilities planning.

Optimizing your budget is a far broader undertaking than simply cutting expenses. Your mindset needs to shift from short-term savings and “what can be cut,” to how do we evolve what we’re doing to create more long-term resiliency. This involves investment in tools and processes that can improve productivity and help stretch resources through automation and workflow optimization. A CMMS can support these efforts through improved preventive maintenance and automated work orders so technicians can work more efficiently, and funds can be directed to higher-value needs and priorities.

3. Reducing Energy Usage

Institutions like yours are expected to take meaningful action on sustainability goals that will have an impact. On average, higher education facilities use 18.9 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity and 17 cubic feet of natural gas per square foot each year. To help manage this usage, you should adopt smart systems like IoT-enabled monitoring, automated HVAC controls and space data analytics.

When you can more easily identify inefficiencies within campus facilities, you not only reduce waste and shrink your carbon footprint but also may unlock new cost savings as well as funding opportunities. Energy reduction initiatives are increasingly defining campus reputations, and a CMMS platform can help you maintain this stewardship as a top priority.

4. Extending the Lifespan of Aging Infrastructure

Campuses across the U.S. are decades, if not centuries, old. With deferred maintenance backlogs now averaging more than $140 per square foot nationwide the challenge of preserving the character and function of aging buildings often clashes with making sure they are safe and compliant.

To extend the life span of your physical campus, assets require preventive maintenance schedules, digital asset tracking and data-backed forecasting so you can uncover and prioritize critical repairs before they become an emergency. It’s important to treat your aging infrastructure as something to be strengthened, not a liability that needs to be replaced. With a CMMS you get the visibility and structure you need to maximize the value of existing assets and align with long-term planning.

4 Campus Facilities Pain Points and How a CMMS Solves Those Challenges

If you’re reading this, it’s probably because you are experiencing a few facilities management headaches. Here are four common (and frustrating) pain points when it comes to managing your campus.

Deferred maintenance backlogs and limited budgets 
Inaccessible or decentralized space utilization data and difficulty making repair, replace or scheduling decisions
Complex compliance hurdles and manual audit reporting 
Siloed campus systems and a lack of data integration needed for confident decision-making

Using a CMMS empowers you to turn facilities management into a true driver of institutional value. By centralizing operations, streamlining workflows and surfacing actionable insights, a CMMS gives you the visibility, efficiency and foresight needed to manage diverse campus assets.

Here’s how:

Centralized Management: Automates work orders, asset tracking and project oversight in one platform, which reduces manual effort and improves efficiency

Space and Occupancy: Optimizes how classrooms, labs and residence halls are used, creating a flexible campus that supports hybrid learning

Maintenance and Budgeting: Helps prioritize repairs, forecast costs and align capital planning with institutional goals
Compliance and Safety: Strengthens readiness for inspections, emergencies and regulatory requirements so your campus stays safe and compliant

Case Study: How UC Riverside Streamlined Reporting and Asset Maintenance with FAMIS 360

Take the Next Step with Your Campus Facilities Management

As you consider what’s next for your facilities management needs, think about technologies that can do the following:

Scale for multifaceted campuses that encompass large areas and contain different types of buildings and communal spaces

Integrate with existing systems and tech infrastructure to provide a full view and data-informed insights
Optimize physical space to meet student, faculty and staff expectations while supporting ESG and sustainability initiatives

Facilities management software, like Accruent’s FAMIS 360, offers critical features that address these needs head-on. In addition to best-in-class work order, preventive maintenance, and inventory capabilities, its advanced modules provide analytics, inspections, incident tracking, space data, reservations and key control management. You can also get automated workflows and robust integrations that drive more efficiency and increase student satisfaction.

Managing your facilities, from a single building to several campuses, is only becoming more complex. Using an advanced CMMS can help you stay agile and make decisions based on real data-driven insight, while easily integrating with your existing tech stack.

To transform your campus operations and facilities strategy, check out how a CMMS built for higher education can help – request a FAMIS 360 demo today.