Following the launch of the Higher Education Data & Improvement Programme’s (HEDIIP) New Landscape report, Rosie Niven talks to HEDIIP director and keen jazz drummer Andy Youell about the importance of data and why universities should value it.
Are universities making the most of data? If not, how could they do more?
Anecdotally, we know there is a lot of aspiration to make better use of data. Some Universities already have very well developed business intelligence and analytics set up. Other universities are less sophisticated in that. One thing I do think is an issue is the challenge relating to the management and governance of data and the danger of universities trying to build their analytics on a foundation of data that doesn’t necessarily have sufficient levels of control
How important is having a solid information landscape to the efficiency of universities?
I think it is enormously important and this is a huge opportunity. Universities are being bombarded by requests for data from all sorts of collectors who are working in an entirely uncoordinated manner. If we could get the data collectors to be a little more joined up and a little more efficient, in terms of how they operate, I think that will drive more efficient behaviour in terms of how universities respond to those requests. At the moment, data collectors are driving universities to be very inefficient in how they respond to these requests. The information landscape work that HEDIIP has been doing creates an opportunity but I would want to stress that institutions have to change to realise the benefits of that.
Which projects have achieved the most for higher education in the data and information sphere?
There has been a huge amount of activity around data and information over the past couple of decades. I don’t think it is overstating it to broadly describe it as a revolution that we are living through and all the things that flow from that. There are a lot of things happening around data and information in HE. If I had to pick one, I would reflect on the experience of something called the key information set, the KIS, the information that underpins the Unistats website. That has been significant in two respects. Firstly, it is the first time that a national level data initiative or development has been exclusively focused on the needs of students. The other thing significant about KIS, is the extent to which it has been a very significant contributor to how information has moved up the strategic agenda. Increasingly now, institutions are realising that they have to think of data as more than something that flows around their computer systems and think of the big strategic issues arising from data.
What can we learn from data and information projects outside the sector?
I think there are many. There are some good things that we can learn from and I think there are probably some terrible things out there that we can learn from. The work that UUK are currently doing to look at how data and information skills are taught in higher education is very important. There is a complementary piece of work being carried out by NESTA which is looking at how to assess the levels of data capability across the economy. Through initiatives like that, higher education and universities can learn a lot from what else is going on elsewhere. HE is in a unique position because it is a sector that delivers the development of data skills and a skilled workforce and higher education as a sector needs data skills and a skilled workforce. So I think universities can uniquely look at this issue from both ends of the telescope.
What other projects are you working on at HEDIIP?
Most of the other things we are doing – aside from the New Landscape project – are technically focused. There is a lot of stuff around data specifications and a project to create a subject coding system for higher education. There are other things going on in various aspects of data language – I am slightly obsessed about the definition of the word “course”. There are many definitions of that word and apparently similar words like programme; these differences in definitions cause costly, and often unnecessary, problems. The other, I think, very significant strand of work that is currently live at HEDIIP is around data capability. We are helping the sector raise the standard of data management and governance by developing a toolkit to help institutions assess their current level of maturity and develop an improvement plan and improve what they are doing. One aspect of that is in some institutions there are significant levels of data duplication and we therefore don’t have one version of the truth but many.
How can projects like these help universities become more efficient and effective?
The data capability work can really help universities become more efficient and effective. There is an obvious efficiency in removing duplication. There is also a very simple principle that if there is one version of data that everybody uses it will drive an improvement in quality. That in turn leads to better decision making and better benchmarking. In 2015, in this data driven world, any organisation that doesn’t have control of its data has a big problem. I often draw the comparison between how organisations manage their data and how they manage their money. And if you think about the sort of controls, checks and balances over money in organisations and you compare that with the way organisations deal with data, there can be quite a gap there.
What are your interests outside work?
If you look at my LinkedIn profile you will find a picture of a drum kit and I have been hitting things since an early age in a vaguely musical way. I am a jazz drummer and play jazz all over the place. I think there is something about patterns and sequences that is hard wired into my DNA somewhere. Music is actually all about the patterns and sequences,scales and chords, and you can express them in numbers. Jazz brings together teamwork, technical ability and improvisation; we all need a bit of jazz in us.
Andy Youell is the director of the Higher Education Data & Improvement Programme. The data capability toolkit is available on the HEDIIP website.
