All university courses must teach foundational data skills

Many in UK higher education were understandably outraged when the country’s latest higher education minister, Andrea Jenkyns, told the Conservative Party’s recent conference that too many students are studying Harry Potter rather than developing technical skills. It was a flippant remark, designed to delight the base of her party, but bore little relation to reality.

Far from being detached from economic realities, UK universities are at the front line of the battle for growth. Whether through vocational courses or traditional academic subjects, universities help students develop both the professional attributes and the technical skills needed for a fast-changing world of work. Likewise, university research powers the innovation and new technologies that allow industries to grow and evolve. Rather than making universities the butt of bad jokes, the minister would do better to celebrate and support them in this work.

This is particularly true when it comes to data, which are increasingly the lifeblood of all industries. From initiating or developing a service or product to measuring public sentiment around possible pricing levels, organisations and companies are increasingly reliant on data – and, more specifically, on public web data.

This means that the demand for people with the skills to effectively use data is incredibly high – and is only expected to increase. The government has already recognised this in a report published last year, which described the pipeline of graduates with data skills as “limited”. This is why data skills – and basic data literacy for all – sit at the core of the government’s National Data Strategy (NDS), which stresses the need for “the formal and vocational education system to better prepare those leaving school, further education and university for increasingly data-rich lives and careers”.

Driven by the NDS, the sector is already stepping up. Most notably, the Office for Students (OfS) worked with seven universities earlier this year to run a pilot scheme that tested methods of teaching foundational data skills to undergraduates whose subject does not contain significant data science elements. The pilot showed that the earlier in a course data skills are taught, the more time students have to embed skills and appreciate their importance. It also revealed students' preference for learning data skills through teaching that is embedded into existing modules.

The Bright Initiative works with more than 250 academic institutions around the world to provide students of all disciplines with the right tools and technology to conduct data-driven research; provide working insight into the role data play across multiple industries; and help build the skills needed in data-focused career paths.

This experience has allowed us to make useful observations. We’ve seen, for example, that almost all students intuitively recognise the importance that data play in their everyday lives and feel comfortable about sharing their own data as a matter of routine. This means that all students express an interest in better understanding data. There is little need to make a case to non-specialist students to take up data education opportunities.

Our experience also suggests that this interest in data extends beyond simply wanting to develop technical skills. Students have a real appetite to better understand many of the issues around the use of data. This includes a desire to learn more about the ethics of its collection, where responsibility for the ethical application of data-driven technology should sit and the types of regulation that should be applied to guard against misuse. This level of interest is encouraging; the full social and economic value of data will only be unlocked with consideration given to ensuring that it works for and not against the good of society.

Forecasts suggest that data will be a $100 billion (£90 billion) global industry by 2027. As the experience of the OfS pilot suggests, educating graduates with the skills and confidence to flourish in that world requires that learning about data and developing foundational data skills are factored into the curricula of programmes covering all disciplines. It also means working in partnership with industry to ensure that real-world issues about how data are collected and applied can be considered.

None of this will be done with a wave of Harry Potter’s wand. But, despite the minister’s suggestion to the contrary, our experience is that universities are fully primed to put in the hard work it will require.

Keren Pakes is general manager of The Bright Initiative by Bright Data, a global programme that uses public web data to drive positive change in society.