The Scottish higher education sector is awash with data and statistics. The sector uses this information:
- to promote courses to students
- to measure against government targets
- to evidence cases for academic promotion.
The sector cuts, tweaks and presents the same data in different ways, to tell different stories, and with the amount of data available it is easy to feel lost in the mix.
So, in response a range of staff from across Scotland’s universities, with expertise in data and information management, collated data and statistics to create the HE Data Landscape resource. This resource is a guide for staff involved in managing academic quality to understand what data is available to them.
The HE Data Landscape resource was developed and published in 2018. After four years much has changed within the higher education sector. While some elements of the resource are now dated, for example the Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) data was replaced by Graduate Outcomes data, and processes have changed – the final ELIR review cycle completed in 2022, the premise and underlying purpose are the same. There continues to be a considerable emphasis on metrics in higher education and staff and students need support to understand and manage data and evidence and their relationship to key quality processes. The resource will help support the sector as it develops and implements the Scottish Funding Council’s new Tertiary Quality Framework. Data and evidence will be at the forefront of this major initiative.
The HE Data Landscape resource comprises 13 individual data guides on key data sources, collections and applications. Using these guides will support your use of data in key quality activities. You may also find it useful to view of video – Hunting for Evidence in the Data Lanscape.
HE Planners activity
How can the HE Data Landscape help you?
You can use the resource to:
- Understand data type and scope of the data
- Find information on the time period for data renewal
- Identify questions that the data can help explore or answer
- Find information on important caveats and exclusions
- Locate publications / analyses that use the data
- Find the data and any further published analyses.
HE Data Landscape Resources
The HE Data Landscape resource comprises 13 individual data guides on key data sources, collections and applications. Exploring the HE Data Landscape can support your use of data in key quality activities.