We have discussed the role of Data Science (DS) in previous BLOG, many years ago. In the past 9 years, DS has become a hot potato. Practically speaking, every higher ed institution tries to capture this opportunity, even though some may be the followers because others did it. DS is needed because of bounded rationale of human mind to be able to analyze voluminous data, and be able to transform them into meaningful information.

DS is not someone who can write a code in R or Python alone. But a statistician and a strategist as well. DS is not a coder, but a decoder. More importantly, someone who has the ability to see the future because of what he does with the data. He is a scientific fortune teller. So, knowing how to write codes, does not make someone to be a DS. Because, it requires more than the ability to write SQL queries. It is the ability to show a better path, other than the current condition that matters most. For example, how can an institution is able to empower their employees using DS. How can DS contribute to lower cost of production. How DS can lower the product selling price. Those are what matters. It is not just to increase an entity’s bottom line, because that is too simplistic. That is not DS.

Higher ed now is challenged to come out with viable solutions on addressing equity gap. How can higher learning institutions are able to reduce equity gap using DS? This also shows that the old Institutional Research concept is dead, many years ago for its inability to address many issues, not just student loans or ever increasing college cost. The ability to transform data to increase the well-being of the society, that what matters. And that what IRI is.