Domains
How to select a business area or data domain to establish policies and practices within the data maturity framework.
Addressing data capability at an organisational level may feel challenging. An alternative approach is to select a specific business area or data domain and use this as a vehicle to establish policies and practices to underpin other areas in the future.
While this may be a pragmatic option, it is important to ensure that considering a single domain does not lead to siloed thinking, which could worsen existing maturity challenges.
Considerations before embarking on domain-specific development include:
- Ensuring senior sponsors maintain focus on organisational level objectives.
- Ensuring governance development retains an institutional or college view.
- Building architectural and data foundations suitable for multiple business areas.
- Developing standard reporting processes appropriate for multiple reporting requirements and capabilities.
These overarching issues may be best managed as a series of specific projects within a wider programme; strategy, requirement and decision-making needs will then relate to a specific domain.
The value of data in key domains
Student journey
Student entry qualifications
Understanding your range of entry qualifications across different subjects and different student demographics to identify how these cohorts perform as they progress.
Student Engagement analytics
What contributes to student progression and attainment? Use library data, your VLE, your student record, attendance monitoring and building or room data to understand which students may need support.
Student continuation
Are students completing modules and continuing onto their next year of study as expected? Do specific groups struggle? Is there a difference in module performance between groups and assessment methods?
Student non-continuation
For what reasons do students not continue their studies? Are they related to the course or to their personal circumstances?
Student attainment
How many students gain good honours? How does this relate to their entry qualifications? Have you added value? This metric has marketing value and drives external comparators.
Student progression
How many students progress onto further study? Do students stay at your institution or move to another one? Who are your alumni?
Student entry qualifications
Understanding your range of entry qualifications across different subjects and different student demographics to identify how these cohorts perform as they progress.
Student Engagement analytics
What contributes to student progression and attainment? Use library data, your VLE, your student record, attendance monitoring and building or room data to understand which students may need support.
Student continuation
Are students completing modules and continuing onto their next year of study as expected? Do specific groups struggle? Is there a difference in module performance between groups and assessment methods?
Student non-continuation
For what reasons do students not continue their studies? Are they related to the course or to their personal circumstances?
Student attainment
How many students gain good honours? How does this relate to their entry qualifications? Have you added value? This metric has marketing value and drives external comparators.
Student progression
How many students progress onto further study? Do students stay at your institution or move to another one? Who are your alumni?
Research management
Grant applications, awards and success rates
The percentage of applications that are converted to awards, broken down by demographics, research groups, funding bodies and value; pre and post award contract management.
Funding opportunities and projects
What share of the funding market are you winning; how many collaborations are you working on where PIs/CoIs are from other institutions.
PHD student management
The PHD student journey - prior attainments, submission rates within funded periods, and future career pathways.
Contract management
The cost of research grant proposals, capture and the delivery of research; the percentage of research covered by funders; payment profiles across the grant lifecycle; How much does your research cost to deliver?
REF submission
What do you need to fulfil the data requirements and analysis that form part of the REF process.
Outputs and impact
The number of outputs and have been delivered within subject areas and by individuals; and indicators of the quality of research through citations and knowledge exchange activities
Grant applications, awards and success rates
The percentage of applications that are converted to awards, broken down by demographics, research groups, funding bodies and value; pre and post award contract management.
Funding opportunities and projects
What share of the funding market are you winning; how many collaborations are you working on where PIs/CoIs are from other institutions.
PHD student management
The PHD student journey - prior attainments, submission rates within funded periods, and future career pathways.
Contract management
The cost of research grant proposals, capture and the delivery of research; the percentage of research covered by funders; payment profiles across the grant lifecycle; How much does your research cost to deliver?
REF submission
What do you need to fulfil the data requirements and analysis that form part of the REF process.
Outputs and impact
The number of outputs and have been delivered within subject areas and by individuals; and indicators of the quality of research through citations and knowledge exchange activities
Staff journey
Application, shortlisting and interview
The volume of applications, percentage of candidates reaching different recruitment stages, demographic variations and the duration of each phase.
Workload planning
The management of academic staff time including teaching load, research time (where applicable) and administrative duties.
Workforce planning and staff development
The number of staff by grade and career stage across academic / teaching and professional or support functions and the visibility of staff training activity in relation to the skills required for their role.
Reward and recognition; engagement
The pay and benefits packages by staff grade and career stage and the satisfaction with this and the working environment via engagement surveys.
Diversity and inclusion
What staffing cohorts do you have? Do they have equivalent experiences in their progression and reward? Variations in grades and leadership roles based on gender, ethnicity, disability, sexuality and religious belief.
Promotion, moving on or retirement
The percentage of staff who are promoted, the time taken between career stages, reasons for leaving, the numbers of staff approaching retirement.
Application, shortlisting and interview
The volume of applications, percentage of candidates reaching different recruitment stages, demographic variations and the duration of each phase.
Workload planning
The management of academic staff time including teaching load, research time (where applicable) and administrative duties.
Workforce planning and staff development
The number of staff by grade and career stage across academic / teaching and professional or support functions and the visibility of staff training activity in relation to the skills required for their role.
Reward and recognition; engagement
The pay and benefits packages by staff grade and career stage and the satisfaction with this and the working environment via engagement surveys.
Diversity and inclusion
What staffing cohorts do you have? Do they have equivalent experiences in their progression and reward? Variations in grades and leadership roles based on gender, ethnicity, disability, sexuality and religious belief.
Promotion, moving on or retirement
The percentage of staff who are promoted, the time taken between career stages, reasons for leaving, the numbers of staff approaching retirement.
FE funding
ILR funding rules
Student eligibility, prior attainment levels and previous learning activities.
ILR
Accurate student demographic and activity data, course data, student progression and destination.
Additional funding streams
The volume of bursaries, learning support packages and the eligibility of learners for these benefits.
Funding allocation
The analysis of internal, indicative and final funding allocations.
ILR funding rules
Student eligibility, prior attainment levels and previous learning activities.
ILR
Accurate student demographic and activity data, course data, student progression and destination.
Additional funding streams
The volume of bursaries, learning support packages and the eligibility of learners for these benefits.
Funding allocation
The analysis of internal, indicative and final funding allocations.
Curriculum
Curriculum design
The structure of courses and programmes - what core and optional modules are available and how may options for routes are open each year.
Assessment types
Assessment types by module or course, changing assessment types over time and the relationship between assessments and outcomes.
Cohorts
Cohort outcomes by assessment type and by module and the relationship to multiple markers - eg prior attainment, demographics.
Curriculum analytics
The assessment of multiple markers of curriculum design - structure, assessment, class sizes - to provide course comparisons.
Curriculum design
The structure of courses and programmes - what core and optional modules are available and how may options for routes are open each year.
Assessment types
Assessment types by module or course, changing assessment types over time and the relationship between assessments and outcomes.
Cohorts
Cohort outcomes by assessment type and by module and the relationship to multiple markers - eg prior attainment, demographics.
Curriculum analytics
The assessment of multiple markers of curriculum design - structure, assessment, class sizes - to provide course comparisons.
Finance
Transactions
The day to day financial activity of the university or college; the visibility of non standard trends within a subject area or function.
Forecasting and budgeting
Internal and (where appropriate) sector trends in income and expenditure and linked inputs (for example student numbers and funding).
Research expenditure
What is your research expenditure by department and by FTE; how does that compare to the sector; What is the research net contribution of the research you do?
Risk analysis
Understanding the impact of various factors (for example, student age profiles by year) on income and expenditure needs. At scale this may benefit from advanced analysis in machine learning software.
Transactions
The day to day financial activity of the university or college; the visibility of non standard trends within a subject area or function.
Forecasting and budgeting
Internal and (where appropriate) sector trends in income and expenditure and linked inputs (for example student numbers and funding).
Research expenditure
What is your research expenditure by department and by FTE; how does that compare to the sector; What is the research net contribution of the research you do?
Risk analysis
Understanding the impact of various factors (for example, student age profiles by year) on income and expenditure needs. At scale this may benefit from advanced analysis in machine learning software.
Estates
Room condition
The grade of teaching spaces and research facilities.
Room occupancy
The percentage of time that spaces are in use, the extent to which they are full or underoccupied.
Campus planning
The location of rooms and distances travelled by students and staff to attend or deliver teaching or research activity.
Timetabling
The allocation of teaching activity to spaces; capacity and suitability for required use; and the use of space across the working day and week.
Room condition
The grade of teaching spaces and research facilities.
Room occupancy
The percentage of time that spaces are in use, the extent to which they are full or underoccupied.
Campus planning
The location of rooms and distances travelled by students and staff to attend or deliver teaching or research activity.
Timetabling
The allocation of teaching activity to spaces; capacity and suitability for required use; and the use of space across the working day and week.
Selecting a suitable domain
Prerequisites for development:
- Vision for the use of domain data to enable strategic decision making and improve administration.
- Applied organisational knowledge of current domain data, systems of record and use in reporting.
- Business capacity for requirements.
- Capacity and capability for requirements analysis and translation.
Considerations for prioritising domains:
- Risk appetite in relation to domain data and compliance.
- Opportunity gap between current data management and outputs and possible future usage.
- Upcoming system developments.
- Timescales of any business area project activities or structural changes.
It may be helpful to employ a risk/opportunity approach for domains you are prioritising.
Statutory compliance – must do
- Statutory and funding delivery.
- GDPR compliance.
- Reporting to governance bodies.
- Freedom of information requests.
Total cost of ownership – should do
- Minimise localised processes and systems.
- Reduce duplicated activities (eg migrating data multiple times, siloed mappings).
- Address manual processing – it is time consuming and therefore costly.
Culture and wellbeing – should do
- Ensure systems enable staff to perform their roles.
- Ensure teams have appropriate analysis tools.
- Engender a culture where information is trusted.
- Ensure queries reach the right person or team.
Driving value – want to do
- Blend information to better understand our students, staff or operations.
- Understand our current state so our strategy is an achievable plan reflecting a realistic trajectory.
- Understand how we leverage our key resources, so we know which areas to invest in.
Next section: current maturity
It is good practice and good sense to be clear on the current state before embarking on improvement activity, and data projects are no different.