Data Governance

Statutory Authority

The Board is given authority over data management for the System and institutions under Utah Code 53B-1-402 (2) (Establishment of Board – Powers, Duties, and Authority – Reports):

(2) The Board shall: …

(c) establish metrics to demonstrate and monitor:

(i) performance related to the goals; and

(ii) performance on measures of operational efficiency;

(d) collect and analyze data, including economic data, demographic data, and data related to the metrics; [and]

(e) govern data quality and collection across institutions.

This function is managed on behalf of the Board by the Office of Research and Data Science, which provides research, analytics, dashboards, system data governance for USHE.

Data Sources

Most data available to USHE is provided through institutions. Institutions submit preliminary data over the course of a term or year and final data at the end of the term or year. Separate processes and submission schedules exist for technical colleges and degree-granting institutions. Data reported to the federal IPEDS data system generally coincides with the fall preliminary data for national consistency and thus may vary from USHE end-of-term reports.

These reports include a wide range of data regarding students and institutions.

Data Glossaries

Data submitted to USHE by institutions is standardized to system data glossaries that provide consistent data definitions for each data element submitted. This allows USHE to ensure data quality by using consistent standards across institutions and ensuring that data users understand exactly the meaning of each data point, fulfilling the Board’s governance responsibilities. Separate data glossaries are created for technical colleges and degree-granting institutions that reflect their significant differences in enrollment practices and program design.

Data Security

USHE maintains appropriate physical, technical, and administrative safeguards that ensure the data will only be accessed by authorized staff for legitimate purposes. USHE data systems are managed within the larger University of Utah’s University Information Technology environment. USHE receives data from institutions on a secure, encrypted file server and stores that data on a server with encrypted connections and access controls. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. The data is secured within the University Downtown Data Center, which employs multiple levels of security controls and is audited annually by a third-party Qualified Security Assessor.

All users complete background checks and data security awareness training. Users are granted the lowest level of access rights needed to perform their job functions.

Additional protections exist for specific data sources as part of the data-sharing agreements that govern those sources.

Data Privacy

Data privacy goes beyond data security to protect individuals’ right to maintain a sphere of information about oneself to which no one else has a right except by one’s consent. That sphere usually includes personally identifying information and information that could be used to harm a person. This applies throughout the data lifecycle—definition, collection, storage, use, sharing, archiving, and destruction of data.

USHE’s legal data privacy obligations consist of a range of federal, state, and foreign laws. The Board has responsibility for implementing Utah’s higher education privacy laws under Utah Code 53B-28-5. These establish data protection requirements on the Utah Board of Higher Education, institutions, and third-party contractors.

USHE Data Dashboards

USHE data is available to the Board in a series of data dashboards maintained by ORDS at ushe.edu/institutional-data-resources.

Board Attainment Goals Dashboard

The Board Attainment Goal Progress dashboard indicates progress toward the attainment goals for access, timely completion, and high-yield graduates established in the Board’s strategic plan.

High-yield graduate measures after 2022 are adjusted as follows:

• 2022 Base Year for high-yield graduates (numerator) and all graduates (denominator)
• When measuring for a given year, calculate the number of high-yield graduates. That becomes the numerator.
• The denominator is the graduates from the base year PLUS the difference between the measure year and the base year high-yield graduates.

Key Student Indicators Dashboard

The Key Student Indicators (KSI) dashboard provides overall annual data for the primary measures of student enrollment, retention, and completion at the system, institutional type, and institution levels.

• Headcount indicates the number of individuals enrolled, regardless of the number of courses taken.
• Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) enrollment indicates the number of people enrolled, adjusted for the number of courses taken. For example, a student who takes the courses that would normally constitute a full course load counts as 1 FTE, but a student who only takes half of that load counts as 0.5 FTE. There are multiple standards for calculating FTE from various federal agencies and national research organizations, so FTE reported elsewhere may vary somewhat from ORDS-reported data.
• Retention Rate indicates the percentage of students who have never attended college before who enroll in an institution and are still enrolled after one year.
• Awards indicate the number of degrees or certificates awarded by an institution, counting multiple degrees awarded to one student as multiple awards.

Enrollment and Completion Dashboards

The Headcount, FTE, and Degrees and Awards dashboards provide additional detail and trend data about the number of students enrolled at and receiving degrees from USHE institutions. Completion data is available by nationally standardized “CIP” codes that identify the academic field in which a degree or certificate is awarded.

Workforce Dashboards

The workforce dashboards allow users to examine workforce outcomes such as salaries, wage growth, industry placement, and in-state employment for USHE graduates following graduation, indicating USHE’s contributions to the state economy and to economic opportunities for its residents. This data is based on institutions’ annual data submissions and Department of Workforce Services unemployment insurance contribution data. Data is limited to in-state employment outcomes.

The Workforce Dashboard is available at ushe.edu/ushe-graduates-workforce-outcomes.