Campus Review Volume 28 - Issue 2 | February 2018 | Seite 25

TECHNOLOGY
campusreview.com.au
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Universities are a big
target for hackers because
universities have a spirit of
collaboration and open
sharing.
data, it could be a reputational risk for them because they have a
wealth of information, not only of students’ personal information
but also research.
There’s also medical information there as well as credit card
information, and that’s most often what hackers are using to get
on to larger corporations and government.
With that in mind, do you have any advice for improving security
at universities?
With the limited resources universities have, it is best to focus
on understanding where the sensitive data is and protecting
that, and making sure data governance processes and structures
are put in place.
You’ve said before that in terms of finance, one student alone
could be worth about a million dollars to a university, so data’s
a large part of keeping these students and also a part of how
universities market to them, and monitor and analyse their
experience as well. What should universities do differently to
attract and keep these students?
Universities should proactively use business intelligence to
understand the entire life cycle of a student. That way, they
make the experience for the students better.
The more universities understand about the students,
the more they can apply that knowledge and help them
with their curriculum, as well as find out, for example, if
they’re mentally okay or struggling with university life.
You’ve been working in information for a long time now.
How do you see data like this changing the education game
in the near future?
Data is definitely the key to understanding the students
and profiling what the students’ experience will be within
the university.
That is a critical asset that universities do know about,
and more universities will move in to greater real-time
understanding of what’s happening across the university,
across the students, and will be more sophisticated in
making sure they’re proactively helping their students
achieve the best results.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
The only thing I would like to add is that there is a lot of
work to be done there, and universities do need help when
it comes to knowing more about, and using more often,
the digital data and wealth of information they have. ■
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