Data Matters 2025: connecting the people behind the numbers
Exploring the challenges, opportunities and evolving education landscape at our first one-day event for strategic data leads in the HE and FE sectors.
Data Matters, Jisc’s first face-to-face conference for the HE and FE data community, brought together strategic data leads working in FE and HE from across the UK to explore some of the most urgent questions facing the sector.
Registration for this hotly anticipated one-day event at the Lowry in Salford closed early due to high demand.
97% of attendees work in data-intensive roles, including student services, business intelligence, human resources and strategy.
They were treated to keynote speeches and lightning talks from some of the most important and influential data professionals in the tertiary education sector, along with opportunities to test out some of the latest tools and technologies in the demo zone.
Jisc colleagues led the way on with a keynote from Rob Phillpotts, our chief data officer, and Phil Richards, chief technology officer for data.
Data Strategy: the key to effective data
Michael Webb, director of AI at Jisc, closed with a keynote on 'Data: the lifeblood of AI'. He said:
"The aim is for the UK to become an AI maker, not a taker."
Keynote: Data: the lifeblood of AI
We recorded talks in the Compass room at the event, but this was only a proportion of the lightning talks and presentations from experts across tertiary education.
People at the heart of data
Fittingly for an event where many professionals were meeting in person for the first time, one of the recurring themes of the event was the importance of putting people first, and finding ways for our data operations to better serve the needs of our students and staff.
One delegate said:
"Data is important, it needs a strategy and it needs to be owned by leadership. It's about people and not just tech platforms and solutions."
Student care as a USP
In his keynote speech, 'data-informed approaches to student support', Professor Edward Peck spoke persuasively about the vital role data plays in helping young people to grow and thrive.
As the Department for Education's appointed HE student support champion, chair of the ministerial higher education mental health implementation task force, and now chair of the board of the Office for Students (from 7 July 2025), Professor Peck is uniquely positioned to address data professionals on this topic.
Pointing to the increasing scrutiny and impending new guidance on expectations from the Equality and Human Rights Commission in the wake of tragedies such as the suicide of student Natasha Abrahart, Professor Peck made a strong case for organisations to carefully examine the ways in which they can prioritise student support services.
While greater awareness and intervention for disabilities and vulnerabilities in young people has created a knock-on effect, and additional complexity and pressure on student support data systems, it's vital for organisations to continue investing in these systems.
This emphasis on student well-being was a theme that cropped up again and again at Data Matters 2025. As James Hodgkin, head of analytics, Jisc, pointed out in our live podcast from the event, student care is going to increasingly be seen as an important differentiator for universities looking to improve their offer.
Listen to our learning analytics: the people behind the data podcast.
Brand new tools and platforms
As well as delivering insights from the mainstage through lightning talks and panel discussions, James and the team were in the Data Matters demo zone, helping attendees get to grips with a variety of strategic data products. These included Prospects Hedd, the UK’s official HE degree verification service, and the ‘Discover Progression’ interactive dashboard suite that helps organisations use HESA data.
The tool that generated arguably the most attention in the demo zone, however, was our upgraded learning analytics platform.
Informed by years of feedback from a wide community of users, learning analytics provides a secure centralised platform to help students to stay the course, achieve their goals and support wellbeing.
Key new features include:
- A comprehensive student biography for a holistic understanding of an individual's needs
- A sensitivity model with easy-to-use granular access permission controls
- A data validator to identify and fix issues with your data
Successful learning analytics require a level of data maturity. Fortunately there was plenty of support on offer at the conference to help HE data professionals focus their efforts in this area - including an insight-packed talk from Monica Jones, the University of Leeds' chief data officer.
A new way for the HE and FE community to collaborate
These are just a few of the fascinating and valuable discussions that we enjoyed at Data Matters. We strongly recommend listening back to the lightning talks, panel discussions and keynote speeches available through the Data Matters 2025 YouTube playlist.
Delegates were almost unanimous in their positive response to this inaugural event (with a CSAT score of 96%, with a 4% neutral response). Here's some of the things they had to say:
"Really great presentations, interesting topics and engaging presenters."
"There were lots of great discussions and it helped me realise where we were in terms of our own data journey, not just what we've but the work that still needs to go on."
"We are all in this together and need to collaborate more in the sector and learn from each other. I thought it was a great conference and would highly recommend to others."
As the designated data body (DDB) for higher education in England, Jisc occupies a unique position in the HE data landscape and this first Data Matters conference is just one of the many strategies we use to achieve the best possible outcomes for tertiary education.
Data Matters 2026
Data Matters returns on 21 January 2026 and we’ve changed location! Join us for the latest in data strategy, maturity and leadership at The Rep, Birmingham.
Register your interest for Data Matters 2026. We'll use your details to keep you up to date with all the latest plans for next year's exciting event.