Moving forward with open data: HESA’s new strategy
HESA is pledging to publish as much of its data as possible as open data by 2021.
Companies are struggling to find the data skills they need says new report from...
New report from Nesta looks at the data skills that leading companies look for and the implications for policy and management. Policymakers, educators and industry need to address data skills shortages by upskilling workers, improving the supply of data talent from education, and changing perceptions of data work as boring.
The rise of the new academic advisor
Could the advent of the TEF see the emergence of a new breed of data-empowered academic advisors? Student experience consultant Brian Hipkin says the growth in student-generated ‘teaching excellence’ metrics could herald the introduction of this role.
‘Creating value from open data’ programme launches today
Open data can help increase universities' efficiency, says Paul Clark, launching UUK's 'Creating value from open data' joint programme with the Open Data Institute. UUK is already leading a programme of work which supports efficiency and modernisation in the university sector, and open data can play a key role in this. Opening data on, for example, procurement costs, energy costs and usage, or space utilisation will allow institutions to benchmark one another and drive down costs. There may also be opportunities through transferring good practice from one part of the sector to another.
How clearing is changing
The A-level results are published next week with students entering what has been described as the most competitive admissions market yet. But Dan Benyon writes on Wonkhe that clearing is changing, starting earlier with universities adopting a much more targeted, data driven approach.
What happens when the dial turns red?
When the data shows that a student is struggling, how should universities respond? Brian Hipkin issues a plea to academics and their professional services colleagues to work together more to understand the student lifestyle from the student's perspective.
Jisc selects pilots for new shared service
Jisc has selected 13 institutions to pilot its research data management shared service and also announced an accompanying network to engage with interested institutions who are not part of the pilot.
Data-driven approaches to teaching excellence
Jisc is developing a service allowing universities that don’t routinely collect and analyse learning data to begin to do so. Jisc's Phil Richards writes in Universities Business how learning analytics already offer a practical way to demonstrate student engagement and could bring more benefits in the future.
Higher education data project to focus on the student journey
Open data's role in helping institutions and students understand more about the journey through higher education will be the main focus of a project to demonstrate the value of open data to universities, Universities UK policy researcher William Hammonds has revealed in a blogpost.
Business intelligence and benchmarking can help universities make better decisions
We heard from Chris Hale of Universities UK about how universities use benchmarking to understand their management data. As a follow-up, the Efficiency Exchange asks Dr Giles Carden, Director of Strategic Planning & Analytics at the University of Warwick, for his views.
