How do universities use big data?

Thanks for this article. Really intersting. What I keep on finding intersting is that to date very few universities look for big data to see where the demand from students, globally is coming from to inform their marketing and recruitment strategy. If you're interested, contact me!

Yes, most interesting. But the UKOU started using data analytics as far back as 2006 to predict student success and identify vulnerable students in order to increase retention - see '‘Predicting Student Success’ Open Learning 21(2) pp125-138 on www.ormondsimpson.com

Thanks for the article. I tried to help the third world countries understand how the world-class universities think and act. This is why I will translate this article into Arabic so that those concerned might develop the universities thinking and circualte it on facebook with reference to the publisher.

What this article does not explicitly say but should, is that the success at Univ. of Georgia must have been predicated on actually making advisors available to the students. When the stystem prompted the 50,000 meetings, were there enough advisors on staff to handle the increase in person-to-person meetings? Good, solid, readily available advising is so often the weakest link in an otherwise strong higher education chain. Additionally the academic advisor has become a job unto itself. This work is no longer done by faculty members. There is no group on campus more overworked and underpaid than academic advisors (I acknowledge that I am making a blanket statement here based on what I see at my institution.) That profession needs to be recognized for the crucial role they play in retention and upping graduation rates.