Some of the co-design team are starting a new activity working with Scottish colleges, to explore data management across the sector. The project has emerged from discussions with Scottish college principals, board representatives and the Scottish Funding Council. From our initial research we can see there are clear challenges around data management and associated systems, and there are opportunities to improve the efficiency and effectiveness across the sector in this area.
Our initial conversations have identified the need for progress beyond the Digital Ambition done under Colleges Scotland’s remit in 2020 and underpinning future investment as part of the College Infrastructure Strategy A further potential area to explore is the incorporation of existing good practice taking place around labour market data and the possibility of a coherent, efficient sector-wide approach.
Jisc are talking with colleges in February/March about their data management to understand the relevant key issues and ambitions of the Scottish college sector. We’d love to hear from anyone in Scottish colleges who’d like to talk to us. There will also be a one-day workshop in March (tbc) to bring together thoughts and ideas from across the sector. The expectation of this work is to explore creating an efficient and effective joined-up Scottish tertiary sector vision for data. Hopefully this will provide a starting point for a roadmap for student data management in Scottish colleges to help the sector work collaboratively to fully utilise its rich data sources.
If you would like to participate in the interviews and/or workshop please contact innovation@jisc.ac.uk.