Overview
Welcome to Higher Education Data World
Our Mission
Higher Education Data World exists to enable colleges and universities to succeed in their missions through the effective use of data at all levels of the institution. As an organization we focus on supporting data practitioners in a collaborative, diverse, and product-neutral environment.
Who We Are
Higher Education Data World is a community of higher education colleagues focused on sharing knowledge and best practices for data management. Our members represent many different areas of their institutions including information technology, institutional research, data visualization designers, developers, system administrators, data custodians, and consumers of data.
Our diverse membership includes representatives from two and four-year, public and private institutions from around the world who support data informed decision making through data governance, implementation and development of a wide variety of methodologies, custom and vendor solutions.
What we Offer
Higher Education Data World fosters engagement and sharing in the community through:
- Annual conference focused on sharing ideas, strategy, and methodology related to all aspects of decision support and data management
- Training opportunities, both in person and virtual, to develop new skills or introduce the latest trends
- Monthly webinars on a variety of topics, presented by peer practitioners
- An interactive forum to communicate with your peers, ask questions, and share ideas and experiences.
- A website offering archived resources including past conference presentations and webinars
- Individual networking with colleagues who can share their experiences and offer advice.
- Data Strategy and Culture
- Data Architecture and Engineering
- Data Insights and Analytics
- Data Governance and Stewardship
While we remain product-neutral, we encourage our members to share their experiences and best practice with whatever solution they utilize. We encourage you to join us and learn how your peers are approaching their project lifecycle, data strategy, architecture and analytics! You will find it all here!
Our Story
HEDW began informally in October 2003, when a small group of about 30 product-specific colleagues from higher education met at Northwestern University to discuss reporting issues, strategies, and potential data solutions. The success and value of the presentations and discussion at this first small forum led to coordination of a second event with a broader, non-product-specific audience of higher education peers in April 2005, again hosted at Northwestern University. More than 160 participants from over 50 institutions engaged during two days of informative presentations, lively discussion, and networking. From there, the annual HEDW conference was born! In the years since, our annual conference has been hosted by institutions across the country, from New York to Washington state, Arizona to Michigan and many more! Today our organization is a thriving community of nearly 2,000 members representing institutions from around the world!