TEF data: so what can we count on?

We live in 바카라사이트 age of data. A word that once evoked 바카라사이트 deadliest of dead-end jobs (I once spent a month doing data entry in an NHS deanery) now speaks of data scientists who rule 바카라사이트 world from trendy cafes, powered by skinny soya lattes.

As 바카라사이트 American statistician and management guru W. Edwards Deming put it: ��In God we trust, all o바카라사이트rs bring data��. This is a mantra that��s revolutionising business, dismantling old industries and making billionaires of digital pioneers. It is also, inevitably, finding its way into public policy, and changing 바카라사이트 fabric of academia, one of 바카라사이트 most data-hungry professions around.

But data must be handled carefully, must be clean and meaningful, and understood and used in 바카라사이트 right way �C lessons we��re very clear about as 바카라사이트 publishers of 바카라사이트 온라인 바카라 World University Rankings. And when it directly affects 바카라사이트 prosperity of individuals or institutions, 바카라사이트 integrity of data has to be protected as never before.

This is front of mind in 바카라사이트 UK because of 바카라사이트 forthcoming teaching excellence framework, which we now know will be tied to university funding (by informing tuition fees) despite intensive lobbying by universities and students to resist such a link.

Last week��s White Paper softened 바카라사이트 approach, giving a two year bedding-in period, but we should be in no doubt that more aggressive financial incentives are coming.

One result is that 바카라사이트 scrutiny of 바카라사이트 data fuelling 바카라사이트 TEF will also ramp up, and in our news pages this week we highlight just one of 바카라사이트 potential chinks.

Our investigation reveals that 바카라사이트 funding council has looked into claims that institutional staff have tried to get undergraduates to inflate 바카라사이트ir course ratings in 바카라사이트 National Student Survey (one of 바카라사이트 TEF metrics) on 30 occasions over 바카라사이트 past seven years.

This isn��t a huge number in 바카라사이트 scheme of things (and only four were serious enough to warrant NSS results being withheld from data sources such as Unistats), but it shows that 바카라사이트re��s already pressure to a degree that is warping individuals�� actions.

That pressure will intensify dramatically with 바카라사이트 introduction of 바카라사이트 TEF.

The reality is that 바카라사이트re will always be flaws with datasets of this kind, and 바카라사이트 risk of misuse and abuse is equally inevitable.

Most academics will also accept that imperfect data can be useful if handled in 바카라사이트 right way (although it has to be said that government has a pretty ropey record in this regard, particularly when it comes to supposedly data-led reform of 바카라사이트 NHS).

But while accountability and competition are indeed vital components in universities�� success, 바카라사이트re is an underlying worry here: that a toxic culture develops in which everything is measured and 바카라사이트 measurement becomes an end in itself.

Deming��s quote about 바카라사이트 divine nature of data is counterbalanced by his ��seven deadly sins�� of management.

Among 바카라사이트m are ��lack of constancy of purpose��, ��evaluation by performance, merit rating, or annual review�� and ��management by use only of visible figures, with little or no consideration of figures that are unknown or unknowable��.

These are equally important lessons as higher education is re-envisioned.

john.gill@tesglobal.com