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Data has become a vital asset in higher education decision making. One of Australia’s most prestigious universities, the University of Sydney, recognised the importance of bringing together their sources of data to support future decision making. The University’s Institutional Analytics and Planning (IAP) team was tasked to take on this project. To assist them with the transformation, the University chose Talend because of its nimble approach, streamlined processing and low cost.

A new data and analytics environmentAustralian universities generate enormous amounts of data that are used for a plethora of reasons, including planning and management of revenue, fees, growth and development; institutional reporting to the government; and tracking progress towards achieving goals.

The University of Sydney is regularly ranked among the top research universities in Australia and the top 50 universities worldwide. With over 70,000 students and 7,500 staff, the University generates vast quantities of data that can be harnessed to drive informed decision-making to support the institution’s future success. More than 2,000 staff at the University regularly interact with institutional data.

In the past the University of Sydney, like many universities, faced some challenges in accessing data effectively. It was sometimes siloed in departments and faculties, and data analysis was slow and inconsistent. The University’s Institutional Analytics and Planning team, led by Director Kubra Chambers and Associate Director, Institutional Analytics Craig Napier, was tasked with addressing this challenge.

The team embarked on a three-year plan to transform its operations and data analytics landscape. Their approach was to establish the Modern Data Environment (MDE), which would provide the foundational technology and processes to support their future ambitions. “The initial focus for us was to build a more robust data foundation. This ensured we had the right technology and capability to harness our data assets and create new insights to help the University drive and deliver value through informed decisions,” Napier says.

Why Talend?To assist in building the MDE, the University of Sydney chose the Talend Cloud platform for its ability to move data into the cloud quickly and easily, its high-performing functionality and cost-effectiveness. “By using Talend, we were able to extract and load high volumes of data sources into the cloud quickly, enabling us to explore and innovate faster without significant transformation upfront,” Chambers explains.

The MDE consists of Cloudera’s Apache Hadoop distribution, CDH, running on AWS infrastructure. Data is extracted from a variety of on-premises software, SaaS applications and siloed source systems using Talend Cloud. It is then stored in AWS S3 buckets. Other third-party data sources can also be plugged directly into the environment where required. The implementation of the infrastructure was well-supported by the Talend team as well by the University’s strategic IT partner, Wipro. “We received strong support from Talend throughout the entire implementation journey, which was very reassuring,” Napier says.

Using data to drive better university decision making

“Data and advanced analytics are critical to understanding key student and university insights.

CA S E S T U DY

INDUSTRY

• Higher Education

INFORMATION• HQ: Australia

• 5,001-10,000 employees

USE CASE• Student management

CHALLENGE• Setting a new data and analytics environment

TALEND PRODUCT USED• Talend Cloud Big Data

PARTNERS• Amazon Web Services (AWS) - S3

• Wipro

RESULTS

• 2 billion records and 12 Data sources

• Fast, centralised access to data

• Partnership opportunities on business-led analytics projects

”Kubra Chambers, Director, Institutional Analytics and Planning, University of Sydney

A true analytics partnerThe MDE has already assisted some institutional projects across the University.

One project involved the provision of hot data to support real-time learning analytics. The Institutional Analytics and Planning team were able to consolidate data for institutional learning analytics and academic research projects. This data was then used by the University to understand and generate resources to support students and improve learning outcomes.

Another project involved collaborating with the University’s Library to understand how resources such as online journals and databases are being used by students and academic staff. The team were able to use the MDE to measure the role the library plays in supporting students’ education, as well as to provide data-driven insights that influence aspects such as the future resources the library may procure and its engagement with the wider University community.

“Talend has allowed us to move data quickly into the AWS Cloud. This has strengthened our ability to partner on analytics projects across the University.”

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