Number crunching

A new era is dawning for the use of data in higher education. Institutions need to be ready.

Data and analytics have been central to the unfolding story of the use of data harvested from social media by Cambridge Analytica that has been revealed over the past few weeks. For many this has been a wake-up call. It has led to thousands of people deleting their social media accounts and questioning if, and how, they are being manipulated by digital forces, dark or not.

Meanwhile, in higher education the Office for Students (OfS) has launched a regulatory framework with the intelligent use of data at its heart and the Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa) is rebuilding the sector’s core data infrastructure through its Data Futures programme. The nature and impact of data is changing and both organisations and individuals need to consider what this means for them, and how to respond.