Improving Data Quality and Governance

Published:: Monday, July 8, 2024

Why is higher education still struggling with the basics of using our abundance of data and technology to help guide decision-making? We need active planning, robust governance, a data-informed culture, and skilled data professionals.

Make a Data Plan

Drawing of people sitting at desks with charts and graphs behind them.

To achieve a vision of what unified data models could look like in ten years, higher education leaders must create a plan to address several key areas related to data, including governance, literacy, policy, and infrastructure.

Dive into the 2024 EDUCAUSE Horizon Action Plan: Unified Data Models.

A Vision for Unified Data Models in 10 years: 1. Institutional culture, systems, and processes center holistic student success. 2. Digital literacy training is available for all faculty, staff, and students. 3. Data mesh architecture facilitates the unification of disparate data sources. 4. Industry-wide interoperability standards provide the infrastructure to combine data across functional areas and institutions. 2024 EDUCAUSE HORIZON ACTION PLAN: UNIFIED DATA MODELS

Instill Data Governance

If data governance does not serve as the central hub for various areas of data management, data initiatives will fall short in areas including transparency, accountability, privacy, security, and accuracy.

Read "You Can't Have Digital Transformation Without Data Governance," EDUCAUSE Review.

Drawing of a computer monitor. one person is standing next to it with a magnifying glass, one is sitting on top of it using a laptop, and one is putting binders into a box.

Five Steps for Getting Started with Data Governance. 5 circles, each one pointing to the next: Assess Your Institutional Data Landscape | Cultivate Data Governance Support | Appoint Data Governance Roles | Define Policies, Processes, and Training | Utilize Tools and Establish Metrics. TODD BARBER, MELISSA BARNETT, RACHEL GROENHOUT, DAVID SCHAEFER, AND EDLIRA STEFANI

Create a Data-Informed Culture

Drawsing of a group sitting around a table with a screen on the wall showing charts and graphs.

Creating a data-informed culture involves thinking across the institution and giving stakeholders the confidence needed to contribute to informed decision-making.

View "Fostering a Data-Oriented Culture" [video], EDUCAUSE Review.

Support Data Professionals

Improving data quality and governance requires skilled data professionals. The new Data Professional Pathway supports professionals whose role is to use data, information, and analytics to support data-informed decision-making and institutional success.

Navigate the EDUCAUSE Data Professional Pathway.

4 bars of color next to each other, each longer than the previous one: Blue, Green, Yellow, Red.

The skill I've tried to hone is to help people understand where they fit in the overall Data Ecosystem. BEN WILES, CHIEF STUDENT SUCCESS & EMPOWERMENT OFFICER, CLEMSON UNIVERSITY

Showcase Webinar

Missed the Showcase Webinar | Improving Data Quality and Governance? Check out the recording to access the panel discussion.

Hear from the Community and Analysts

How to Design an Effective Data and Analytics Governance Operating Model

Dive Deep with a 20-Part Data Governance Best Practice Webinar Series

The Ultimate Data Quality Checklist for Higher Education

Getting Started with Data Quality: Tips to Overcome Common Hurdles

4 Ways to Improve Data Quality and Governance Across Your Institution

Solution Spotlight

"Fairfield University has two major projects running in parallel: a Workday SIS implementation project and a Data Warehouse (DW) project. The data conversion phase of WD SIS reviews data quality. The DW project has data definition, classification, lineage, and transformation. New cross-functional data governance is forming to create a single source of truth, maintain data integrity and reliability, and increase access to data." —John Lombardi

Like this Solution Spotlight? Visit the EDUCAUSE Top 10 Solution Spotlights for more stories of how institutions are tackling workforce challenges in higher education.

Go Further

Hear from the Community

Demo Day | Data Governance and Data Management Solutions
Sarah Banks, "Getting Started with Data Governance," EDUCAUSE Review
Dave Weil, Casey Kendall, and Rob Snyder, "A Modern Framework for Institutional Analytics" EDUCAUSE Review
Sue Cunningham and John O'Brien, "The Critical Role of Data in Determining Strategy" [video], EDUCAUSE Review
Ashley Caron and Jaclyn Smith, "EDUCAUSE QuickPoll Results: (Re)organizing Data Functions for Today's Analytics," EDUCAUSE Review

Assess Your Progress

Analytics Institutional Self-Assessment

Feed Your Curiosity

Dig Into the Library

Connect with Community Groups

See EDUCAUSE Shop Talk in EDUCAUSE Review.

We hope this Showcase will help you improve data quality and governance at your institution. Next up, we’ll consider the perils and promise surrounding AI (artificial intelligence) in the AI . . . Friend or Foe? Showcase launching August 19.

Gartner, How to Design an Effective Data and Analytics Operating Model, March, 2024 by Saul Judah, Andrew White
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