Data-information-knowledge. Thanks to the data warehouse, the university can improve the conditions

Which Czech university is preferred by applicants or whether students have ideal conditions for their studies. This is not the only thing that can be found out by collecting data in a data warehouse. 40 experts gathered at UWB to discuss their experiences.

A record 1,300 applicants for the Master's degree programme in Law and Legal Science, 550 applicants for the Bachelor's degree programme in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, and the fact that on average a quarter of those studying at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen did not complete their studies. These are not the only numbers collected last year by the data warehouse of the UWB, thanks to which it is possible to detect the interests and problems of students and start solving them in time.

They extract data from the data warehouse and transform it into information. The information is then transformed into knowledge in the right hands. We are talking about IT specialists, data analysts and, last but not least, people in university management. "Thanks to this data, we know what has been, what will be and we are able to identify the causes of various problems. By working further with the data, we can paint a picture of, for example, how many students have applied to our university in recent years and whether it is more or less than other universities. For example, I now have a graph in front of me that shows that in recent years, those admitted to both UWB and the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice (JČU) end up enrolling at UWB rather than at JČU," said František Kalvas, chief analyst of the UWB Quality Department.

The coexistence of humans and machines in working with data or the glitter and misery of data analytics were the topics of the conference at the Faculty of Applied Sciences of UWB, where over 40 experts from 13 public universities gathered in the field of data warehousing and strategies for cooperation between university management and data analysts. The Data in Action Conference, where programmers, analysts and managers gathered for the first time on 4-5 February to compare their experiences in the field of university management, aimed to increase expertise and cooperation between public universities. For two days, both longtime experts in the field and newcomers came together for discussions. In particular, the event participants sought to build connections and understanding among IT developers, data analysts, and users who should use data to support their decision-making in higher education management functions.

Representatives from 13 public universities of varying disciplines and sizes - from the Academy of Performing Arts to Charles University - filled the conference venues. Each representative presented their own approach, process and technical support for creating analytics for decision support, sharing their experiences, blind alleys, successful experiments or best practices in data warehousing. "One of the interesting findings of the conference was that the University of West Bohemia is one of the universities in the Czech Republic where working with data is given increased attention. Other public universities are worse off. The data warehouse has been operating here since 2018 and UWB was the first public university to set up a data warehouse," said Lenka Jirsová, head of the Centre for Informatization and Computer Technology at UWB.

This year, the conference at UWB was attended by IT specialists rather than managers. "We believe that in the coming year the numbers of university representatives will balance out," Jirsová added.

In general, university data warehouses commonly contain data related to the academic, administrative and research activities of the university, such as information on students and their studies, which includes course enrolments, assessments, courses taken or national examinations, as well as publishing activities, software development and patents, information on teaching loads, building and room usage and generally such data as may be needed for the effective management and development of universities.