The Data Issue
The Trouble With Data
Following various press headlines regarding Vice Chancellors pay in the UK and Australia, the university response generally comes down to the fact that university leaders oversea multi-million dollar organisations, employing in the UK over half a million staff members and educating 2.8million students and in the case of Australia, employing around 130,000 staff and educating 1.5million students. With such revenues and numbers at stake commercial organisations of a similar size would “live, breathe and die” by access to data. Revenue and costs, segmented by product, market, cost of sales etc. Why is this not the case when it comes to higher education?
This is most apparent in the UK with HESA Higher Education Statistics Agency data on student numbers (literally a headcount of students,) over two years out of date and published six months late, with significant inconsistencies from the previous year. How on earth is any multi-million dollar organisation meant to forecast future revenues and ensure their financial survival, with such outdated and inconsistent data?
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