Background 

 

How we measure performance in KE and demonstrate success at the system / sub-system levels (national, regional etc.), the individual university-level, and at the KE mechanism-level (e.g. spinouts) have become pressing questions for Research England.

 

Existing datasets related to KE, such as HESA’s HE-BCI Survey, were developed during the 2000s as KE was in its emergent phase of growth. Other sources of information relevant to our understanding of KE have since emerged but are hard to interrogate and integrate with existing data to allow for a more systematic assessment of KE.

 

As a result, there is a need to develop a new analytical framework to aid understanding of measuring KE. Over the medium-long term, this framework will ultimately inform:

• Policy development.
• Resource and funding allocation decisions.
• New metric design and data collection efforts to unlock more valuable insights on KE.
• The development of tools for KE decision-making, performance and progress measurement.
• Continuous learning within the sector.

 

Project Aims

 

The overall objective is to develop and validate an analytical framework informing our understanding of the health, functioning and performance of KE across the higher education system. The analytical framework will have two (naturally linked) components:

1. An underpinning conceptual framework.
2. A measurement and evaluation framework providing the architecture and tools necessary to improve KE data collection.

The analytical framework will be tested with stakeholders in a second phase, with learnings feeding into further iterations of the framework and a roadmap for implementation.

 

Secondary objectives include to:

• Guide future data collection efforts across different areas of KE.
• Propose pragmatic data quality and measurement standards to govern data collection efforts.
• Propose interface standards to enable the interoperability / integration of different data sources.

 

Key Research Questions

 

What purpose does KE serve?

 

How should KE be characterised in terms of the activities, actors and resources it includes?

 - Should KE be characterised differently depending on discipline?

 

How has KE changed over the past 20 years? How will it change over the next 5-10 years? Are there any emerging/declining themes? in terms of:

 - Activities

 - Actors and partners

 - Resources

 - Outcomes

 

How are KE activities currently measured and evaluated?

 - What metrics are used for strategic decision-making in KE?

 - Do these metrics serve required needs?

 - What are the limitations of these metrics?