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Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe an agile approach to academic analytics that is currently being applied on one of the campuses of a leading higher educational institution in the Caribbean. This agile approach enables the rapid development of a strategic analytics roadmap and proof-of-concept analytics applications for the institution.


Design/methodology/approach
The approach was developed using Design Science which involves the development and rigorous evaluation of an artifact. The agile approach is the artifact and the design evaluation was done using the observational method of primary cases studies where the artifact is studied in depth in a business environment, in this case this was a leading higher educational institution in the Caribbean.


Findings
The final output, the roadmap, highlights the importance of a balanced portfolio of analytics initiatives, relevant and tailored to the institution's specific context that includes technology and applications projects, as well as capacity building, organizational structures and policy initiatives.


Research limitations/implications
The approach that was used and the specific techniques proposed can be extended by other researchers and in so doing will increase the body of research as it relates to agile analytics.


Practical implications
The approach will be beneficial to educational institutions that are considering how best to harness the strategic value of its data. The analytics roadmap will allow the institution to be clear about the path they should take to maximize their investments in analytics initiatives.


Originality/value
A number of existing well-accepted research techniques have been synthesized in the development and application of this agile approach. The approach and final roadmap consider the institution's readiness for and understanding of what is involved in analytics before investing significant resources in its adoption.

Open data have the potential to improve the governance of universities as public institutions. In addition, open data are likely to increase the quality, efficacy and efficiency of the research and analysis of higher education systems by providing a shared empirical base for critical interrogation and reinterpretation. Drawing on research conducted by the Emerging Impacts of Open Data in Developing Countries project, and using an ecosystems approach, this research paper considers the supply, demand and use of open data as well as the roles of intermediaries in the governance of South African public higher education. It shows that government's higher education database is a closed and isolated data source in the data ecosystem; and that the open data that are made available by government is inaccessible and rarely used. In contrast, government data made available by data intermediaries in the ecosystem are being used by key stakeholders. Intermediaries are found to play several important roles in the ecosystem: (i) they increase the accessibility and utility of data; (ii) they may assume the role of a "keystone species" in a data ecosystem; and (iii) they have the potential to democratize the impacts and use of open data. The article concludes that despite poor data provision by government, the public university governance open data ecosystem has evolved because intermediaries in the ecosystem have reduced the viscosity of government data. Further increasing the fluidity of government open data will improve access and ensure the sustainability of open data supply in the ecosystem.

Open data has the potential to improve the governance of universities as public institutions. In addition, open data is likely to increase the quality, efficacy and efficiency of the research and analysis of higher education systems by providing a shared empirical base for critical interrogation and reinterpretation. Drawing on research conducted by the Emerging Impacts of Open Data in Developing Countries project, and using an ecosystems approach, this research paper considers the supply, demand and use of open data as well as the roles of intermediaries in the governance of South African public higher education. It shows that government's higher education database is a closed and isolated data source in the data ecosystem; and that the open data that is made available by government is inaccessible and rarely used. In contrast, government data made available by data intermediaries in the ecosystem are being used by key stakeholders. Intermediaries are found to play several important roles in the ecosystem: (i) they increase the accessibility and utility of data; (ii) they may assume the role of a 'keystone species' in a data ecosystem; and (iii) they have the potential to democratise the impacts and use of open data. The article concludes that despite poor data provision by government, the public university governance open data ecosystem has evolved because intermediaries in the ecosystem have reduced the viscosity of government data. Further increasing the fluidity of government open data will improve access and ensure the sustainability of open data supply in the ecosystem.