Discover and share good practice for smarter working universities

Open data opportunities in higher education

Sharing data openly offers huge benefits for higher education and institutions must make the most of it, says Ian Powling, Digital Programmes Lead at Universities UK.

Timeline revealed for Heidi Plus data analytics service

Key dates have been revealed for the roll out of the Heidi Plus data analytics service, part of the HESA and Jisc business intelligence project. A series of screen shots have also been released for the service which will be phased in from November to replace the original Heidi system.

Raising the bar through collaboration

The Jisc-HESA Heidi lab project has brought professionals from a range of universities together to create dashboards for the sector’s new Heidi Plus business intelligence service. Anne Buckle, who took a leading role in one project team, highlights some of the benefits of this model of collaboration.
Taken from an equipment.data poster

Efficient sharing of university data is closer than you think

Open data is enabling higher education institutions to discover and make the most of opportunities to collaborate, share equipment and expertise. Adrian Cox, project manager at equipment.data, writes about how how this kind of collaboration is helping to achieve efficiencies.
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Open Data as Open Educational Resources 

This collection of case studies put together by Open Education and Universities UK aims to demonstrate the enormous potential for openly-licensed and accessible datasets to be used as Open Educational Resources. The book can be viewed free of charge online.

Digital Preservation and Data Curation Requirements and Solutions

Solutions and practical help for tackling everyday digital preservation issues.

Student surveys are a waste of everyone’s time

"Students have to answer 25 questionnaires a year and they are sick of it", an academic complains. In a post for the Guardian's Academics Anonymous blog, the unnamed physiology lecturer asks why universities are so obsessed with pointless data.
We call it data students call it life

We call it data – students call it life

Big data will back up the new breed of personal tutors in universities. But Brian Hipkin worries that relying on statistics without a meaningful human context will create a support system that will ultimately fail students.

Meet Heidi Plus, HESA’s new business intelligence service 

A new business intelligence service has been launched by Jisc and the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) to support university staff in making the most of the data available to them. HESA's Jonathan Waller explains how it will benefit the sector.

From Bricks to Clicks – the potential of data and analytics in higher education

Big data and analytics are being used by businesses to have more understanding of their customers and products in order to spot opportunities and to become more efficient and more innovative. This report recommends that Universities UK, Jisc and HESA work together to develop a strategy for excellence and innovation in data management and analytics.