Presentation in the first workshop of the Exploring the Emerging Impacts of Open Data in Developing Countries project. Looking at the context of open data, and the research case study planned for 2013 - 2014. See http://www.opendataresearch.org/project/2013/uct

1. The use of open data
in the governance of
South African higher education
An Introduction to the Project
London, Thursday 25 April 2013

2. INTRODUCTION Using the Centre for Higher Education Transformation (CHET)
as a case study, this project proposes to examine:
• the value of the emerging CHET open data initiative to
university planners as well as higher education studies
researchers;
• the limitations of the open data initiative in its current form;
• role CHET plays as an intermediary in making the data
available; and
• some of the unintended consequences of opening access
to the dataset.
As an additional sub-component, the project will undertake
a situational analysis of the use of open data in the South
African higher education and research context.

3. governance Two governance contexts:
• Governance of the higher education system by the State
• Governance of individual institutions by Council and
university management
Open data allows for:
• comparisons between inidividual universities and between
clusters of universities
• decision-making being emperically based rather than
ideological informed
• transparency and accountability of public institutions
by external stakeholders

4. OPEN
DATA





23public
universities
Higher Education Management Information
System (HEMIS) Database
Consultants

5. Government
open data
landscape
DATA
CAPACITY
POLITICAL WILL
Budget
Census
Crime
Election
 SAPS
DHET
NRF
Treasury
LEGAL ENVIRONMENT
Protection of State Information Bill
(“Secrecy Bill”)
IP laws
(copyright/patents)
The Promotion of Access to Information Act
The Constitution
PRESSURES FOR OPEN DATA
• Advocacy groups – supply side
pressure through policy intervention (e.g.
Open Democracy & Data Initiative; Open
UCT)
• Research – supply side pressure
through policy intervention via
intermediaries (e.g. ODDC case study
research)
• Funders/donors – supply side pressure
through conditional funding terms
• Hackers – demand side through product
development (e.g. HacksHackers Cape
Town; OKFN-ZA)
PRESSURE
INTERMEDIARIES

6. OPEN DATA
Supply
HEMIS DHET CHET
Does the data exist?   
Is it available online in digital form?   
Is the dataset machine readable?   
Is the machine readable data available in bulk?   
Is the dataset available free of charge?   
Is the data openly licensed?   
Is the dataset up-to-date?   
Is the publication of the dataset sustainable?   
Was it easy to find information on the dataset?   
Are linked data URIs provided?   
4 7 9
HEMIS data captured as student and staff
records
Only non-personal data available publicly
CHET data only available in the form of
performance indicators

7. RESEARCH
QUESTIONS
1. How does the specific case of the CHET open data initiative fit into
current open data policy and practice in South Africa?
2. What is the value of opening data on higher education in South Africa
to practitioners and researchers?
3. What are factors which inform operability of open data in terms
of data packaging/delivery and user interface? And, (i) assuming
data needs to be curated rather than simply stored, and (ii) that the
systematic organisation of information is not a neutral act, who should
determine how data is presented?
4. What are the implicit and explicit roles of intermediaries in the data
flow process in the context of the case of South African higher
education open data?
METHOD Open data landscape in South Africa: desk study and unstructured
interviews
Use of CHET open data (uptake, operability, etc.): structured interviews
with representative sample drawn from 23 public universities + interviews
with higher education studies researchers in South Africa

8. END