What the new UK Quality Code means for data maturity
New QAA Quality Code guidance puts effective data use in focus, with our data maturity framework helping providers assess capability and identify priorities for improvement.
Author
Felicity Bingham
Senior business intelligence consultant, Jisc
The publication of new Advice and Guidance for Principle 4 of the UK Quality Code for Higher Education gives providers a timely opportunity to look beyond the data they collect and consider how effectively they use it.
Principle 4 focuses on using data to inform and evaluate quality. Its scope is significant. It considers not only collecting and analysing data, but data strategy, governance, trust, staff capability, ethical use, AI, partnerships and, crucially, how insight is translated into action and evaluated.
For many universities and other higher education providers, these won't be new challenges. But bringing them together prompts a useful question:
How mature is your institution's approach to data?
Data maturity is about more than good data
Accurate, well-managed data remains essential for statutory and regulatory responsibilities. But the value of data extends much further.
Managed as an institutional asset, data can help providers understand their students, make better-informed decisions, identify opportunities for improvement and evaluate whether interventions are achieving the intended effect.
The new Quality Code guidance reflects this broader role. It encourages providers to establish a strategic approach to data with clear leadership, governance and accountability, and to ensure that data supports institutional priorities alongside compliance obligations.
It also makes an important distinction between simply having data and having the organisational capability to use it effectively.
From collecting data to using it well
This is where data maturity becomes particularly relevant.
Maturity isn't about reaching an arbitrary standard or implementing every possible data capability. It's about developing the people, processes, governance and technology that your institution needs to get appropriate value from its data.
That might mean asking:
- Do colleagues trust the data available to them?
- Is ownership and accountability for data clear?
- Do people have the confidence and skills to interpret it?
- Is data easily accessible to the people who need it?
- Can insights be translated into decisions and action?
- Can you demonstrate what difference those actions have made?
Maturity isn't about reaching an arbitrary standard or implementing every possible data capability. It's about developing the people, processes, governance and technology that your institution needs to get appropriate value from its data.
These themes run throughout the new guidance. For example, it asks providers to consider whether they have a clearly articulated data strategy, how effectively their governance supports quality enhancement, how expertise can be shared beyond specialist teams, and how the impact of data use is evaluated.
Crucially, the guidance also recognises that capability will vary. It advises providers to assess staff capability before determining training needs and warns against assuming consistent levels of data literacy across an institution.
Our data maturity framework
We're pleased to see our data maturity framework specifically referenced in the new guidance.
Under its section on capability assessment, the guidance describes the framework as “a practical approach to thinking about how data is used across an organisation”. It highlights its role in helping providers establish, enhance and embed effective engagement with data, define accountability and responsibility, and take a structured approach to reviewing progress and planning improvements.
The framework was developed with input from practitioners across the sector and is designed to help universities, colleges and other providers consider what data maturity means for their own context.
That last point is important. The objective isn't maturity for maturity's sake. It is to improve data capability as far as your organisation needs it, based on its ambitions, priorities and starting point.
The objective isn't maturity for maturity's sake. It is to improve data capability as far as your organisation needs it, based on its ambitions, priorities and starting point.
From understanding where you are to deciding where to go
The framework can be used as a starting point for conversations across an institution: understanding the role of people, considering how data moves through the organisation, identifying strengths and gaps and agreeing where improvement would deliver the greatest value. And that conversation doesn't need to begin with technology.
The Quality Code guidance itself recognises the importance of data literacy and confidence, governance, shared understanding, trust and clear responsibilities alongside systems and technical tools.
For some providers, the priority might be improving data governance. For others it could be building confidence among staff who use data, improving data quality or accessibility, establishing a clearer strategy, or moving from reporting what has happened towards using evidence to drive and evaluate improvement.
Take the next step in your data maturity journey
If the new Quality Code guidance has prompted you to take a fresh look at how effectively your institution manages and uses data, Jisc can help.
Our data maturity consultancy can help you understand your current position, bring colleagues together around shared priorities and identify practical actions to develop the data capabilities your institution needs.
Speak to your relationship manager about data maturity consultancy.
Explore your data maturity at Data Matters 2027
Want to explore how your organisation’s approach to data compares with its peers?
At Data Matters 2027, join our interactive workshop, 'How mature is your data?', to benchmark your organisation’s data maturity against the sector.
The session will introduce the key principles of data maturity and explore how maturity can be assessed across strategy, governance, systems, reporting and decision-making. Delegates will take part in a live, anonymous assessment, before exploring the results against sector benchmarks and discussing what they reveal about the opportunities and challenges facing organisations today.
Join us at Data Matters 2027 and discover how your organisation compares.
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