Why use external data?
"At the initial review SMT opted to target the project on the 14-19 part of the College's business and to focus on the delegation of some decision making to curriculum managers, giving them the tools with which they could make informed decisions."
Andrea Chilton, Vice Principal - Quality, Cambridge Regional College
Information used to support business intelligence and contribute to strategic planning can be derived from data both generated and held within higher education (HE) and further education (FE) institutions and from data that is generated and hosted by external data collectors and organisations. Although there are many sources of external data of value and relevance to institutions, discussion here is confined to eight bodies, six of whose chief role is to provide educational services and data to government and HE and FE institutions.
These are the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), the Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association (UCISA), the Higher Education Academy (HEA), and the Learning Records Service (LRS) (formerly Managing Information Across Partners (MIAP)). The seventh, The Administrative Data Liaison Service (ADLS) is a research council funded service that supports research into administrative data. Finally the Office of National Statistics (ONS), the provider of statistics to government, also holds educational data.
The ability to 'add new information sources (internal or external)' has been identified by the project as a 'required attribute' for any business intelligence systems. This enables institutions to draw data and information from across internal applications (such as HR, finance and student record systems) as well as in combination with external data sources as required. External data relevant to all the subject categories identifed through our survey is available to a greater or lesser degree. Although most of this external data available is statistical, some qualitative data (such as the National Student Survey) is available too.
Currently although reuse of external data across the sector remains patchy, data providers are working to help HE and FE institutions to apply it more effectively in their planning processes and interest in the ability to 'benchmark' institutional performance against that of peers continues to grow.
Using external data
| The Benefits | The Challenges |
|
Institutions that use external data effectively have the potential to place themselves ahead of the game in terms of strategic planning and competitiveness within the sector. Benefits include:
|
There are still challenges in delivering and using external data for optimum results, both for institutions and data providers. Challenges, therefore, include:
|
