29 August 2018 
Ruth Hall, Director of Planning and Corporate Student Systems
Data Futures: The Aston Journey
Ruth Hall, Head of Planning and Student Management Information
August 2018
2017/18 has been the year for putting Data Futures on the map here at Aston; a process that seemed simple enough in theory, but has proved to be a treasure trove of complexity in reality.
Overarching responsibility for the implementation of Data Futures sits within the Planning and Student Management Information Team. As an initial step in the process, we used the current academic year to mark a shift in both the way that we work as a team and the way that data is validated. In-year validation and the checking of key data items has begun in earnest and there has been a clear move away from treating the return as a ‘once a year’ event. We are working hard to make in-year data validation ‘business as usual’ to ensure, as much as possible, our own readiness for this step change. We have also ensured that we are up to date with all sector developments, engaging frequently with HESA online content, as well as in seminars and the recent Data Futures training event.
In line with sector-wide feedback, the winning of hearts and minds remains the most challenging element of this project. The year began with well-intentioned proposals on my part to establish the usual strategic group/working group arrangement to drive forward the project. However, we were conscious that attempting to engage a wide-range of staff in large-scale meetings may actually have the counter effect of limiting engagement and buy-in. As such, we have chosen instead to drive the implementation through dedicated workshops with individual stakeholders. We have mapped out all key stakeholders and are in the process of holding initial workshops, providing updates on the progress of implementation and developing early stage risk registers and action plans. We also delivered a presentation in May 2018 to a key university-wide data forum to really mark the start of implementation here at Aston. As a small team of four, we are conscious of the enormous task ahead of us. Stakeholder buy-in, shared accountability and shared ownership of different data sets will be key to successful implementation.
As with many providers across the sector, we are pinning hopes and expectations on the HESA BETA pilot. We hope to use the pilot year to assess the impact of in-year reporting; to see what works and what doesn’t and to bring any resource implications to the fore. We are looking to the future with a mixed sense of excitement, optimism and (admittedly) some trepidation.
