Lifecycles
constituent journeys — student, faculty, researcher, staff
One connected model of the estate, grounded in HERM v3.2.0, presented from many views.
Purpose: spot overlaps and gaps, prioritize recovery, and support investment planning.
constituent journeys — student, faculty, researcher, staff
what the institution does — stays constant as systems change
the step-by-step way work gets done
linked reference — not a required dimension
systems of record
the systems
infrastructure, hosting, recovery
Business Reference Model
29 capabilities · 185 total
Data Reference Model
18 topics · 80 entities
Application Reference Model
126 components
Technology Reference Model
8 technology domains
Sector standard since 2016 · used by 1,000+ institutions · curated by CAUDIT with EDUCAUSE / ITANA
Each system is recorded once against every dimension, so any dimension can become a view.
what it does
what it's source of
what kind of system
where it runs
which journeys
everything touching the student or research journey
what supports a function, and where the gaps are
what one application does and connects to
where data lives and who is its source of record
where the most sensitive data sits
what must recover first if something fails
where AI already operates, at what autonomy
a heat map of gaps and overlaps
captured once at technical depth · summarized upward on demand
Each attaches to the HERM model and answers a question the core model raises but doesn't settle.
cost & value of technology
process performance
lived experience
service operation
service taxonomy
security posture
data management
governance over all
Reference model: CAUDIT Higher Education Reference Models (HERM) v3.2.0, December 2025, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Classification, criticality, and AI profile are local extensions.
Source: library.educause.edu/resources/2021/9/the-higher-education-reference-models