I used to work in the higher ed vertical. They have about the longest sales cycles imaginable because so much of every decision is committee led (speaking at the campus level; department sales are a different story). You also can never expect them to just make a decision. If you are selling to the entire campus, you need salespeople who understand the process to work you through it.

My advice to startups in that vertical: make it a department SaaS sale. You avoid central IT and it's committee process hell. If you really want the whole campus, start with a few departments, make them happy, then work your way up.

When I had a startup selling software to banks, sales cycles were never less than a year, often more so.