Big Data offers opportunities and challenges in all aspects of human life. In relation to research ethics, Big Data represents a normative difference in degree rather than a difference in kind. Data are more messy, rapid, difficult to predict, and difficult to identify owners; but the principles of informed consent, confidentiality, and prevention…

This article explores potential uses, misuses, beneficiaries, and tensions of learning analytics in higher education. While those promoting and using learning analytics generally agree that ethical practice is imperative, and student privacy and rights are important, navigating the complex maze of ethical dilemmas can be challenging, particularly…

Performance data in higher education has gone through a major development in the last few decades. Simple input measures have given way to increasingly nuanced and dynamic output measures and performance indicators have become an integral part of management at the organisational and system level. The evolution of higher education performance…

Whilst technology may have been the 'saviour' of HE from the immediate challenges of the pandemic, the opportunistic dialogue emerging in response is imbued with notions of the pandemic as a catalyst for change. Empowered by the apparent success of technology's deliverance, the door has been opened to unprecedented investment into a pervasive and…

In this position paper, the authors lay out the imperative for equitable artificial intelligence (AI), highlighting the essential role of access-oriented institutions and calling on technology companies (both large and small), foundations, and local, state, and federal regulators to consult with the newly convened Complete College America Council…

This paper argues that a data-driven, niche-focused approach to strategy development will assist Higher Education Institutions to direct their financial resources to greater effect by providing a more tailored service to students, therefore, increasing student satisfaction and creating brand loyalty. This approach will give institutions greater…

Data-driven decision-making and data-intensive research are becoming prevalent in many sectors of modern society, i.e. healthcare, politics, business, and entertainment. During the COVID-19 pandemic, huge amounts of educational data and new types of evidence were generated through various online platforms, digital tools, and communication…

Accelerating advancements in learning analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) offers unprecedented opportunities for improving educational experiences. Without including students' perspectives, however, there is a potential for these advancements to inadvertently marginalize or harm the very individuals these technologies aim to support. This…

This book addresses governing by numbers and human capital policy in higher education by asking how higher education is quantified, how the quantitative information is used in educational governance, and how the information is perceived by students, teachers, managers, and policymakers, and affects decision-making. It also thematically discusses…

This book examines the idea of educational accountability in higher education, which has become a new secular gospel. But do accountability policies actually make colleges better? What if educational accountability tools don't actually measure what they're supposed to? What if accountability data isn't valid, or worse, what if it's meaningless?…

Over recent decades, higher education infrastructures have become increasingly digitized and datafied. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated adoption of online learning platforms, trading the walls of the classroom for digital systems. Yet the surveillance, privacy, and discrimination issues that such systems raise are minimally understood by those…

'Data as technology' has always been, and continues to be an essential part of the structuring of South African society and education, during and post-colonialism and post-apartheid. In the reconfiguration of South African education post-apartheid, student data constitutes a data frontier as un-mapped, under-utilised and ready for the picking.…

The higher education sector is under increasing pressure to deliver more and to evidence the fruits of its contribution to society. There is a particular focus on the enhanced engagement of students in order to maximise success, and for this engagement to be achieved equitably across the student body, regardless of demographic backgrounds. This…

Amid efforts to address the ongoing crisis of high costs, high debt burdens, and decreasing confidence in the value of higher education, TICAS [The Institute for College Access & Success] commissioned leading academics to write a series of papers to inform the policy conversation about how to implement effective, equitable, and sustainable…

Data--their collection, analysis and use--have always been part of education, used to inform policy, strategy, operations, resource allocation, and, in the past, teaching and learning. Recently, with the emergence of learning analytics, the collection, measurement, analysis and use of student data have become an increasingly important research…