Data, Analytics & Insight

Modernisation of data and analytics platforms to provide access to secure and reliable data and insights, enhancing our ability to make well informed evidence-based decisions

Point of View

As we progress further into the 21st century, data and insights are the new currency of the information economy.

There is an intrinsic inter-dependency between data, analytics and insight. Up-to-date, coherent, accessible and accurate data is needed in order to generate reliable and meaningful insights, through the application of analytics.

Leading universities understand that making evidence-driven decisions drives their ability to achieve their goals.With the right information easily to hand, they are better empowered to attract and retain students, researchers and staff, as well as form meaningful and productive relationships with industry partners and the wider community.

The ability to detect changes in key indicators and glean appropriate insights is now an essential requirement for institutions.This allows them to react to changing priorities and expectations among our internal and external stakeholders, such as leveraging insights to enhance our student support mechanisms.

Information privacy is also increasingly critical for universities, who need to balance timely and accurate information access and flow with ensuring that access is in line with rapidly evolving data privacy and freedom of information rules which apply to everything from student personal information to industry specific research data, as well as to the large volumes of data captured through the Internet of Things.

What does the future look like?

• Reflecting our academic mission for research and learning, our institutional mindset is a robust, evidence-based approach to strategic educationaland research enhancement and decision-making.
• Our decision-makers are afforded data, systems and expertise –when they need it, wherever they are –to help them meaningfully weigh alternatives.
• The needs of the Waite campus are quite different to those at Roseworthy and North Terrace, but there are also commonalities. Insights on the three campuses allow us to optimise economies of scale where applicable and complement this with services which are not delivered at all three campuses.
• Duplicate records and out-of-date and inaccurate information have been removed, leaving unified information that we have confidence in using to drive our interactions and decisions.
• Information is delivered to and assessed in real time by the recipients across the University community, who can then include it in their day-to-day decision-making, driving early intervention and responsiveness in areas such as student mental health and well being as part of the pastoral support we provide.
• Having easy access to up-to-date information and insights becomes the norm and is a fundamental component of all tasks and activities.
• Our analytics capability draws upon the large amounts of disparate data that we and our partners collect, bringing order, structure and coherency. It provides meaningful insights that can be acted upon.
• Predictive analytics complements historical analysis to provide forward-looking projections, using learnings and trends from the past, supporting early intervention and risk mitigation.