The first event of its kind, QS’s Edu Data Summit was a masterclass in the use of big data in the higher education sector. Bringing in delegates and experts from across the globe, the three-day seminar offered an in-depth exploration of this increasingly important subject.
With such a wealth of talented speakers at the event, picking out highlights is difficult. Nevertheless, here’s a roundup of some of the most interesting talking points:
Wednesday:
Full house for the first QS Stars Conference @EduDataSummit #QSStars pic.twitter.com/xTcTooT4iK
— Leigh Kamolins (@Leigh_Kamolins) June 8, 2016
Wednesday kicked off with the QS Stars Conference. This session was a great way for current and prospective university users of the QS Stars ratings to share experiences with their peers and partners. It also provided an opportunity to discuss best practices, data collection and the general process of the system.
https://twitter.com/angelcalderon01/status/740449949779910657
This was followed by an afternoon masterclass on subject rankings. This session was designed to help university staff understand exactly what goes into the QS World University Rankings by Subject.
Coverage here was extensive and included:
- Data collection
- Data analysis
- Publishing the rankings
- The effect of rankings on universities
- How to use the rankings for strategy planning
The masterclass finished with a Q&A segment, allowing attendees to get a complete understanding of the process.
The inner workings of the QS World #University #Rankings revealed at @EduDataSummit #Subject #Rankings #MasterClass! https://t.co/s4ZEA3bv4l
— Serena Ricci (@Sere_Ricci) June 8, 2016
Absolutely amazing day 1 at #EduDataSummit .. looking forward to tomorrow! https://t.co/Yhx2eAfDWZ
— Dr Ashwin Fernandes (@ashwinjf) June 8, 2016
Thursday
MIT’s president, Leo Rafael Reif, opened Thursday’s proceedings with a video address, before Bernd Widdig, director for international activities at MIT, gave a keynote speech.
https://twitter.com/QS_Digital/status/740828088095940612
The first presentation of the day discussed how universities can use big data to enhance higher education. The analysis of big data is already having a major impact on our lives and it has the potential to improve them in an unprecedented capacity. Kevin Downing, director of knowledge, enterprise and analysis at City University of Hong Kong, explained exactly how the same technology could be used to improve higher education.
Dr. Kevin Downing asking key questions #EduDataSummit #highered pic.twitter.com/wzyBQnxGZu
— EduData Summit (@EduDataSummit) June 9, 2016
The next session, ‘From Hard Data to Soft Power’, featured leaders from some of the world’s best-known universities, discussing how their own institutions have used data to increase their success.
From Hard Data to Soft Power – Chair: K. Downing – Speakers: Kevin Kelly, Pamela Moss, Andrew Coats & Sarah Griggs. #EduDataSummit
— EduData Summit (@EduDataSummit) June 9, 2016
Debate at the #EduDataSummit about role of data in university decision making. My view is that it's THE way to get around subconscious bias
— Tanya Monro (@tanyamonro) June 9, 2016
This was followed by a fascinating set of case studies in which the use of big data had directly helped improve performance.
https://twitter.com/QS_Digital/status/740843799853838340
How useful are mission groups? The summit continued into Thursday afternoon with a fascinating talk about how universities use mission groups to maximise impact.
Great to see @MIT using #QS #Academic #Reputation #Dataset to compare with their peers #Edudatasummit #unirankings pic.twitter.com/SUYkpEopHV
— Dr Ashwin Fernandes (@ashwinjf) June 9, 2016
Closing the day was a session entitled ‘Does Better Data Mean Better Universities’, which took on a Question Time-style format. A team of experts tackled the topic of data quality before taking questions from the floor in what proved to be a fascinating and insightful debate.
Pamela Moss articulated difference bw data & information and its power to provide better higher ed outcomes for students #EduDataSummit
— Tanya Monro (@tanyamonro) June 9, 2016
Suggestion by @tanyamonro that data allows uni's to be bold, backed by evidence#EduDataSummit pic.twitter.com/tw1rGukQW8
— Renee Hindmarsh (@renee_hindmarsh) June 9, 2016
Friday
Friday’s program began with University College Dublin’s Bairbre Redmond presenting on the subject of academic teaching and learning advances. This session involved a discussion on how sharing data across institutions can help in the development of teaching methods and the effectiveness of learning at university.
It's a full room again at #EduDataSummit Day3 for @BairbreRedmond presentation @ucddublin pic.twitter.com/J2oHooQ586
— EduData Summit (@EduDataSummit) June 10, 2016
This session was followed quickly by a case study session looking at universities’ use of informative data. The importance of intelligence data was discussed, with panellists musing over examples of value creation for universities which have only been made possible by the availability of big data.
One of the event’s most topical sessions came next: ‘Have Rankings Empowered the Drive for Quality in Higher Education?’ In this, panellists debated whether university rankings
really do drive quality, or whether they encourage uniformity and stifle autonomy.
I'm debating the value of rankings up next at @edudatasummit #edudatasummit
— Johnny Rich (@JohnnySRich) June 10, 2016
Enjoying listening to @cameron_ross in his fascination presentation on Elsevier's data and its uses and abuses at @EduDataSummit
— Leigh Kamolins (@Leigh_Kamolins) June 10, 2016
The last session of the day discussed how research tools, such as those provided by the publishing firm, Elsevier, help to empower collaboration between universities, and what could be more valuable in our globally connected society than cooperation? Our team explored how these tools can be used both to identify collaboration targets and to monitor how effective these partnerships are.
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