Open Access

Sulejman Vejseli, Gerald Stei, Alexander RossmannORCiD

• Higher education institutions (HEIs) rely heavily on information technology (IT) to create innovations. Therefore, IT governance (ITG) is essential for education activities, particularly during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, the traditional concept of ITG is not fully equipped to deal with the current changes occurring in the digital age. Today's ITG requires an agile approach that can respond to disruptions in the HEI environment. Consequently, universities increasingly need to adopt agile strategies to ensure superior performance. This research proposes a conceptualization comprising three agile dimensions within the ITG construct: structures, processes, and relational mechanisms. An extensive qualitative evaluation of industry uncovered 46 agile governance mechanisms. Moreover, 16 professors rated these elements to assess agile ITG in their HEIs to determine those most effective for HEIs. This led to the identification of four structure elements, seven processes, and seven relational mechanisms.