Data Management Training for the quality assurance agencies in higher education

A two-day training on data management for the employees of quality assurance agencies working on the higher education data and those interested in increasing their capacities in the field of data management, organised by the ERI SEE Secretariat, was held on 15 and 16 September 2022 online.

The overall goal of the training was to provide the participants with necessary practical knowledge in the dataset development, strengthen their capacities of data management, and contribute to making the data management process at national and regional level more synchronised and efficient.

The training was developed and delivered by Ms Ivana Živadinović, Regional Project Coordinator in the ERI SEE. It was designed on the crossroad between applied statistics and data management and its application in Excel for those accounting it on everyday basis, and as a base for those who would like to advance to data analysis and statistics. The training was attended by 15 representatives of relevant institutions from the economies of the South Eastern Europe.

The main topics of the training were: (1) how to create a dataset in Excel – main DOs and DON’Ts; (2) how to perform basic data management in Excel (IF functions, SUM(IF), count (if), mean, mode, median, standard deviation); (3) how to numerically present data (frequencies, cross-tabulations, PIVOT tables, VLOOKUP); (4) how to visualise data using graphs – and how to use all of above in everyday work to enhance the process.

The format and content of the training were decided based on the needs of participants identified via earlier distributed questionnaire.

This training is a part of the ERI SEE Secretariat continued efforts to connect the national databases with the regional QA Register on the regional portal – WB Qualifications portal for ensuring effective and efficient data collection and increasing the transparency of all higher education systems in the region.