1. What is your job title?

National Manager, Data Excellence at the Australian Catholic University.

2. Briefly, how would you describe your role in your institution?

I am new to the Australian Catholic University (ACU) and am responsible for ACU’s data and information strategy and governance, and also for ensuring that the data is effectively utilised as an asset.

I oversee the data warehousing and business intelligence functions at ACU, our analytics and insights, and our central reporting capability. I am also actively involved in functions such as enrolment planning, and in pilot projects on AI.

3. From your perspective, what will be the key skills, capabilities and knowledge required for institutional research moving forward?

While data analysis skills are crucial to our roles, skills in drawing out insights from complex data—and being able to tell ‘stories’ using the analysis—are becoming more and more important. Often the best analysis still needs us to communicate the story in a compelling manner so as to inspire action. Many excellent analyses result in no action if missing the right narrative, context, and insight, and so I believe that as institutional researchers these skills are essential for us moving forward.

In addition, stakeholder relationships are critical to our roles. Without the right sponsor advocating for us, even the best analyses will likely go unnoticed.

Communication skills and stakeholder management skills are important areas we should prioritise as institutional researchers.