Institutional Analysis and Research (IAR), with the support of the Provost and the joint sponsorship of Karen Menard, Assistant Vice-President, Institutional Analysis and Research, and Dave Whittle, Associate Vice-President and Chief Information Officer, has launched an initiative to develop an institutional data strategy to support data-driven decision making based on accessible, comprehensive, and reliable sources of data for academic and administrative units on campus.

The first step in the implementation of the data strategy was the successful launch of the institutional data portal in January 2018. The data portal contains more than 60 official dashboards and reports, providing clear and accurate information on such topics as enrollment, degrees awarded, faculty, research, student retention and graduation.

CCS Business Analyst Ann Cesar has worked closely with IAR’s Rob Heenan and Tegan Anselmini on this project, and she has been heavily involved in various aspects, including:

• playing a key role in the launch of the data portal;
• organizing more than 25 stakeholder engagement focus groups;
• researching data best practices and speaking with more than 15 universities across North America; and
• working with a data advisory committee to assess current state and needs to inform the development of a modern, enterprise-wide data strategy, including a roadmap for program implementation.

Next steps for this important, multi-year initiative include communication of the data strategy to the broader University community, putting together a hybrid (analytics and IT) project team for implementation, and the formal establishment of both a data steering committee and a data advisory committee to oversee the implementation. The project will use an agile analytics approach for implementation, prioritizing data initiatives to meet desired academic and research needs.

This project was approved by the U of G IT Governance Committee (ITGC). For more information on the ITGC, please refer to the Governance + Strategy section of this annual report.