Who are the DGN and why are we running an assessment.

The Data Governance Network (DGN) is made up of practitioners from over 30 UK universities. It is primarily a support network to develop and share good practice in relation to data management and governance for the HE sector.

It has become clear that in order to provide this support we need to understand where the sector currently is in terms of its capabilities around the management and governance of data. By understanding this we can target the development of tools, techniques and associated guidance to increase our mutual data capability and professionalise our approach to data management and governance in line with other professional approaches to institutional assets.

Who is this assessment  for?

While everyone in the university uses data, we believe your role gives a unique awareness of both the risks and opportunities of your current data capability.

This assessment measures the maturity of your data capability in terms of how data management and governance support and enable the short-, medium- and long-term objectives of the university.

How do I complete it?

First download the spreadsheet at the bottom of this text.

The there are four sections to complete:

  • How data is valued
  • How data is managed
  • The culture around data
  • COVID-19 response

Each section begins with a proposition. The questions within the section assess how well your university meets that proposition by measuring against a five-point scale (ranging from agree strongly to disagree strongly).

We have included a specific section on COVID-19 as we feel this has considerable current relevance to how data is being used at universities.

Where possible we would like you to answer for the university – looking across business areas rather than focussing on a single department’s view.  We appreciate this will not always be possible and there is a free text field for you to add context as appropriate.

What will happen next?

Assessment should be returned to the DGN via Helen Butler (h.j.e.butler@bham.ac.uk). Once the assessment collection closes, we will analyse the results, publish our anonymised findings to all respondents and produce a roadmap with our pragmatic approach to providing the tools, techniques and associated guidance that can help improve our shared data capability. We encourage you to be as honest and thoughtful as possible but please be reassured that your results will be anonymised within any data presented back at sector level.

What if I have questions?

If you have any questions about the purpose of this exercise or want to learn more about the Data Governance Network (DGN) generally please be in touch.  You can contact the DGN by emailing h.j.e.butler@bham.ac.uk