Artificial intelligence and advanced analytics are transforming the way organisations operate. From automating routine tasks to uncovering new insights, the opportunities are huge. But here’s the catch: AI is only as good as the data that feeds it. That’s why I’ve developed the Data Readiness Checklist for Future Technologies – a simple, practical tool to…
You can have the best dashboard, the clearest definitions, and the most carefully governed dataset — but if your data setup only works as long as a specific person is around, or a specific tool behaves as expected, then it isn’t future-proof. Things change. People leave. Systems evolve. If we want our data to stay…
Mention “data governance” in a meeting and you’ll usually see people brace for impact. It’s not the most exciting phrase, and it often sounds like something for big teams with formal committees and glossy PDFs. But governance isn’t about paperwork. It’s about making sure the effort you’ve put into improving your data doesn’t quietly fall…
Data doesn’t just describe what’s happening in our institutions. It also shapes it. What we choose to measure – and what we don’t – tells staff and students what really matters. Over time, those choices create culture and direction, even when no one has explicitly set out to do so. Think of it as a…
When working with sensitive datasets in Power BI, it’s common to need more than just a “neat” presentation of numbers. Sometimes you need to apply privacy-preserving techniques—like rounding or suppressing small counts—to protect individuals’ identities while still providing useful aggregated insights. This is especially relevant in higher education, healthcare, and other sectors where data can…
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (on phone screen) speaks with the ChatGPT logo in the background – his company is gearing up to launch GPT-5, the next major AI model. ChatGPT has rapidly transformed from a novel experiment into a daily assistant for millions of users. In late 2022, the original ChatGPT (powered by the GPT-3.5…
Once you’ve started making your data more usable and understandable, the next step is knowing whether you’re making progress. That’s where metrics come in. We’re used to measuring performance in higher education. But we rarely measure the quality of the data behind those performance measures – and that’s often where things go wrong. Good data…
It’s easy to forget that the dashboard is only the end of the journey. If you want meaningful insight, you have to start much earlier – with the raw data. Refining data doesn’t mean building the perfect model or learning a new tool. Often, it’s about getting a solid grasp of what your data actually…
“Fit for purpose” is one of those phrases that gets thrown around a lot in data conversations. It sounds sensible. It feels right. But when you stop and ask, fit for whose purpose, and how do we know it’s fit?, the answers can get surprisingly vague. In higher education, we’re often good at making data…
When I started working with data in higher education, my tools of choice were Excel and Access. My first real project was back in 2003, fixing a clunky admissions database that someone in the department had cobbled together in Access. Once I got it running more smoothly and set it up to accept data uploads…
