The Engineering Professors’ Council: Using data to inform and shape the future of engineering

Like all HE (higher education) disciplines, engineering has some big challenges that it continues to respond to; ranging from how to increase diversity to how courses are designed and taught so that they are more accessible to a wider range of students.

Part of a suite of online services, the new data explorer which harnesses Jisc data, allows members of the EPC network to answer key questions. Using hundreds of data combinations and accompanying visuals, it informs evidence-based conversations and decisions about vital topics such as course offerings, access and participation, diversity, learning models and outcomes.

A membership organisation of over 80 universities, the EPC supports an Engineering Academics Network (EAN) of over 8000 engineering academic staff. It represents most engineering departments within the HE sector and gives a voice to those within it. We’ve been working with the EPC for the past three years supporting their work with access to comprehensive, trusted data via our Heidi Plus business intelligence platform.

Answering popular engineering questions to inform decisions

A key benefit provided to EPC members through the data explorer is the ability to access deep dive data from a variety of sources including Heidi Plus. Data is provided through a range of charts and tables that answer popular questions about engineering student admissions, enrolments and completions, as well as academic engineering staff. Answers to the questions have a wide-ranging impact which inform member metrics, decisions and benchmarking about course provision, access to engineering, diversity and standards. 

Stella Fowler, policy and research manager at EPC says:

“Good data answers questions, but also provokes more as a basis for deeper understanding about the needs of our sector and the students it serves. That’s what Jisc helps us to provide to our members.”

A range of popular, easy access engineering questions for members to explore answers to using data from the EPC’s data explorer.

Powering the data explorer

A wide range of dynamic data and visualisations make up the EPC’s data explorer content giving members access to the relevant data behind the question for further analysis and a visual way of representing the answer. The type of visualisation shown can be adjusted while search functionality and data filters are also included so information can be refined and highlighted. Dr Steve Bullock, associate professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Bristol supports the transition to university in addition to understanding student demographics and how they are shifting. He says:

“The EPC's new data explorer brings Jisc-powered metrics and data from Heidi Plus and other sources together in an incredibly usable and understandable form. It's been invaluable in getting to grips with the statistics and revealed some really actionable insights.”

An example subject visualisation for EPC’s members from the data explorer.

Informing conversations on diversity and access to engineering

The insight from the EPC’s data explorer helps to inform conversations around diversity and inclusion which enables the EPC to work with its network to assess and respond to sector policy as it’s developed. Increasing representation and access to engineering will help to safeguard and strengthen the future talent pipeline as more students choose a future in the subject and more graduates start to feed through to industry. Never before has data played such an instrumental role in providing the necessary evidence to monitor the health of an entire discipline and will continue to do so through the EPC’s work and the support of our Heidi Plus service.

Stella says:

“Engineering is a vast discipline which touches upon all aspects of society. Through an understanding of nuanced distributions of, say, females across different engineering subjects, our members are able to understand where the greatest strides in inclusion have been made. We learn from recruitment, pedagogy, assessment and other practices on the ground in those areas to effect wider sector change.

“Collectively, we can apply our understanding of engineering to support or challenge changes in policy. By using data to inform our collective voice, we can ensure decisions are always based on the evidence.”

An example diversity visualisation for EPC’s members from the data explorer.

Find out more

• Find out more about the Engineering Professors’ Council, their members and their work
• Read more about Heidi Plus, Jisc’s higher education business intelligence system containing access to a wealth of data and insights over time on students, graduates, staff and more