Evaluating Unistats

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Evaluating Unistats

Tristram Hooley

Reader in Career Development

University of Derby

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About the project

Early evaluation funded by HEFCE.

Project undertaken by the International Centre for

Guidance Studies and CRAC. 3 main methods

Online survey

Fieldwork observations

Webstats analysis

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Warning

These are very general early findings.

They may well change as we do moreanalysis.

This is my opinion not that of HEFCE ormy fellow researchers.

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http://unistats.direct.gov.uk/

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Provides the KIS to end users

Data drawn from

NSS

Universities UCAS

DLHE

See http://unistats.direct.gov.uk/find-out-more/key-information-set#kis

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The rationale

Good data = good choices

People will behave rationally if they are given

information on which to base their choices

An individual pays HE system requires applicants

to think like consumers

There is a need for an official source of

information

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In other words

HE needs

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There are competitors

Which University http://university.which.co.uk/

What Uni? http://www.whatuni.com/

Push http://www.push.co.uk/ Compare the Uni

http://comparetheuni.com/compare/all/

Bestcourse4me http://www.bestcourse4me.com/

Also newspaper university rankings sites, careers sites

and other things like http://www.notgoingtouni.co.uk

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So what does Unistats do?

Search for courses

Compare the KIS that relates to those courses.

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Who has used it?

What did you like?

Not like?

Would you like to see any changes?

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What do we like about the site?

It works

People understand it

It doesnt try and do everything It is authoritative and factual

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What do we think should be

changed? Improve the search

Improve the filtering (e.g. entry requirements,

geography)

Make the comparison simpler (less data with

drill down to detail)

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What we are wondering?

About 10% of the sites users are international. Should it

address their needs?

The site uses both the KIS and Unistats brand. Does it need

both? The site has high data standards. This means that some

courses data collection doesnt make the grade and that

there is missing data. Should it be made more inclusive?

Should the site include more contextual and qualitative

data? If so what (description of the university? Description ofthe city? Price of a pint?)

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Any questions?

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Further information

Unistats

http://unistats.direct.gov.uk/

HEFCE

http://www.hefce.ac.uk/ International Centre for Guidance Studies

http://www.derby.ac.uk/icegs

CRAC

http://www.crac.org.uk/

Adventures in Career Developmenthttp://adventuresincareerdevelopment.posterous.com/