Five Questions with Dr Anne Statham
Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia
Anne chose to be interviewed in Chair #10
1. What is your job title?
Principal, Institutional Research & Strategy
2. Briefly, how would you describe your role in terms of your place in your institution?
My position is located in QUT’s Strategic Intelligence Unit (SIU), which was established to source evidence, broker knowledge and provide decision support for QUT leadership. Reporting directly to the Vice-Chancellor and led by Dr Sam Nielsen, SIU is a small, eclectic team that also includes data scientists and a corporate reviewer. Our activities are geared to guiding the University’s strategic direction, and informing decision making and policy formation in support of QUT’s mission and objectives.
I take a broad perspective on institutional research that is inclusive of strategic research projects, benchmarking, survey outcomes, rankings and other reputational impacts, and environmental scanning. My role involves extracting strategic value from diverse evidence sources; identifying opportunities, challenges and risks for QUT; and preparing discussion documents and executive briefs. Apart from facilitation of QUT’s participation in the UniForum professional staff and academic management collections, I have no ongoing survey management responsibilities.
3. From your perspective, what are the emerging areas of interest in institutional research?
- Pinning down the nebulous concepts of quality and value from a student-centred perspective; working out what we mean by quality and value in an era of technological change, rising costs, changing demographics, emphasis on employer-aligned outcomes and political uncertainty
- Thoughtful and ethical use of mainstreamed data analytics to elucidate organisational characteristics, inform strategic planning and empower students
- Reputation management, including appropriate responses to rankings
- Closing gaps between strategic planning and implementation; replacing siloed traditions with cohesive, proactive and directional strategic agendas.
4. What do you believe will be the future priorities for institutional research?
- Embracing chaos, being alert and responsive to change, mess management
- Capitalising on opportunities to learn from other sectors; developing new forms of collaboration
- Balancing supply and demand of easily accessed, timely, secure and targeted information across the University
- Continued definition and demonstration of the value of higher education
- Consolidation of the third-space role of institutional research; a diminishing of role ambiguity and lack of skill recognition.
5. Complete this statement: In my role, I can’t operate effectively without…
The short answer: Coffee, Google, social media and, of course, the SIU team.
A more nuanced answer would also acknowledge that I’ve found qualifications and experience in communication, marketing, sociology and academia to be beneficial in this increasingly interdisciplinary institutional-researcher-as-knowledge-broker role.
Answer 5 Questions
Would you like to feature in the ‘Institutional Researcher’s Corner’ segment of our newsletter, The Institutional Researcher?
Contact our trusty editors with the answers to 5 simple questions, and we’ll feature you in an upcoming issue.
