Are your current data systems siloed across different campuses?
Data provides evidence-based insights that help administrators and faculty make informed decisions regarding academic programs, resource allocation, and strategic planning. Colleges can identify trends and areas for improvement by analyzing data on student performance, retention rates, and graduation rates.
If a student transfers from one campus to another, a unified system will provide access to all their records and help staff offer the right support. However, if different campuses use separate systems, it leads to fragmented information that hinders collaboration and creates inconsistencies in reporting.
Read how colleges are unifying data across campuses to drive efficiency and insight.
The importance and benefits of data unification in higher education
Data unification is crucial for colleges and multicampus institutions, offering numerous benefits that enhance both operational efficiency and student outcomes. Fragmented data systems lead to inefficiencies and inconsistencies across campuses. The results are redundant processes, impaired decision-making, and a poor student experience as departments may lack a cohesive understanding of student interactions.
When institutions implement systems that unify data, they can overcome these challenges and achieve significant improvements.
Improved operational efficiency
Unified data systems eliminate the need for manual data entry across multiple systems. Staff can automatically pull information from a central database, which reduces time spent on administrative tasks and minimizes errors. Streamlining these processes leads to more efficient operations and better resource allocation.
Enhanced decision-making and student support
With consolidated data, administrators can gain insights into student performance and identify those who may be struggling. This enables the development of targeted support services, such as tutoring and mentoring, to improve student outcomes. Real-time monitoring of student performance allows for timely interventions, enhancing retention rates.
Streamlined compliance and reporting
A unified data management system consolidates information from various departments and simplifies regulatory reporting. Institutions can generate accurate reports for accrediting bodies with minimal manual effort while ensuring compliance and reducing administrative burdens.
Improved collaboration and communication
When all departments and campuses work with the same data, institutions ensure consistent information access. This alignment is crucial for coordinating administrative tasks, resource allocation, and academic standards across multiple campuses.
Actionable insights and strategic planning
With interactive dashboards, administrators can quickly identify patterns and trends with advanced analytics capabilities. For example, a decline in enrollment for specific programs can prompt discussions on curriculum improvements and marketing strategies to drive institutional growth and adaptation.
Multicampus data integration strategies
Implementing multicampus integration presents several challenges, but with the right strategies, institutions can overcome these obstacles effectively. Some challenges that colleges often need to overcome include:
- Data fragmentation: Different campuses may use various systems that do not communicate effectively, leading to data silos. This fragmentation makes it difficult to obtain a unified view of student and institutional performance.
- Inconsistent data quality: Incomplete, inaccurate, or outdated data can hinder decision-making processes. Many institutions struggle with data quality issues, which can lead to erroneous insights and reporting.
- Legacy systems: Many institutions still rely on outdated software that complicates interoperability with new systems. Integrating these legacy systems is complex and time-consuming.
- Stakeholder resistance: Faculty and staff may resist changes to established processes and systems.
- Training and support needs: Insufficient training on new technologies often leads to underutilization of systems. Staff may feel unprepared to use new tools effectively.
- Security concerns: Ensuring data privacy and security while integrating systems is critical, especially when handling sensitive student information.
To overcome these challenges, higher education institutions could follow these strategies to integrate multicampus data into one system:
- Assess current data systems: Conduct a thorough audit of existing systems across all campuses to identify data sources, formats, and quality.
- Engage with stakeholders: Involve faculty, staff, and students in the integration process. Gather feedback and insights to ensure the new system meets the needs of all stakeholders to foster a sense of ownership and commitment to the project.
- Establish a universal data platform: Consider creating a universal data platform that serves as a single source of truth for all student information.
- Implement in phases: Roll out the unified system gradually, starting with pilot programs or specific departments. This approach allows for testing and adjustments before full-scale implementation.
- Train and support: Provide ongoing training and support for staff and users to ensure they know how to use the new system. Regular workshops and training resources can enhance user capability and confidence.
- Implement strong data governance policies: Develop clear data governance policies to ensure data accuracy, security, and compliance. Regular audits and monitoring can help maintain data integrity over time.
- Promote a data-driven culture: Encourage data literacy across the institution by providing training programs that empower staff and faculty to harness data effectively.
- Continuously monitor and evaluate: Regularly assess the performance of the integrated system and solicit feedback from users.
What unified data systems look like on campuses
Many educational institutions have unified their data, streamlined their assessments across campuses, and driven institutional improvement. Let’s look at some case studies to see this approach in action.
Florida National University
One example is Florida National University (FNU), a small but ambitious institution that faced the daunting task of preparing for SACSCOC reaffirmation. The process required extensive evidence collection, documentation, and cross-campus collaboration. Traditionally, this process was time-consuming, fragmented, and stressful, with data and documentation scattered across departments and systems.
To address these challenges, FNU’s accreditation team adopted Watermark’s technology solutions. This enabled them to centralize and unify data from multiple departments and resources into a single, accessible platform. Streamlined evidence collection and reporting made it easier to gather, organize, and present the required documentation for accreditation.
Montreat College
Montreat College, a secluded institution in North Carolina, faced significant challenges that threatened its survival. With outdated systems, it also saw declining enrollment and financial instability. A key part of Montreat’s revival was the adoption of new programs and systems that unified data and processes across the college.
By implementing Watermark’s solutions, Montreat was able to centralize institutional data, streamline previously manual administrative processes, and enable cross-campus collaboration with assessment standardization. Breaking down silos and gaining actionable insights into various information allowed Montreat to survive and thrive.
University of Minnesota
Technical education data systems are not only applicable to administrative and academic processes. For instance, the University of Minnesota Athletics Department manages a massive volume of transactional data. More than a million people attend events each year, and every ticket changes hands multiple times. Previously, this data was siloed across different platforms, which made it difficult and time-consuming to answer basic questions about ticket sales and fan engagement.
Since there was no single source of truth for analytics, the department built a scalable, unified data lake. This tool took information from ticketing vendors and other sources and automatically transferred, cleaned, deduplicated, and standardized this data. As a result, the department now has real-time, comprehensive access to all ticketing and engagement data. The unified data layer supports ongoing pricing, yield strategies, and fan engagement initiatives.
These inspiring stories show how institutions can unify data from multiple sources — even across different departments or campuses. Unifying data across systems, whether for academics, administration, or sports, empowers higher education institutions to operate more efficiently and make smarter, faster decisions.
Unify data with Watermark
With a unified view of data, college leaders and decision-makers can use real-time insights to strategize and implement changes where necessary, including driving efficiency and improving student success. The Watermark Educational Impact Suite (EIS) serves as a comprehensive platform that consolidates data from various sources across multiple campuses. It unifies data systems, allowing easier access and management of information.
Our EIS helps capture data and put it in the right place, analyzing it for patterns, trends, or anomalies, and communicating insights to inspire the right actions. Schedule a demo to see how it can help your multicampus institution.
