Institutional data governance at Illinois is the coordinated approach to managing institutional data as a strategic asset. The goal is to make institutional data reliable, secure, and accessible for informed decision-making.
What are institutional data?
Institutional data are information generated, collected, stored, maintained, transmitted, enhanced, or recorded by or for the university to conduct university business, regardless of medium. Institutional data are used for many purposes including but not limited to planning, managing, operating, controlling, or auditing university functions, operations, and mission. Excluded from this definition are data already governed by existing procedures; data generated by research; data owned or generated by a party outside the university when used in research conducted at the university, under the auspices of the university, or with university resources; and fundraising data outside the scope of the Advancement, Alumni, and Foundation data domain.
What is institutional data governance?
Institutional data governance is:
- Defined roles and responsibilities for data ownership and accountability
- Policies governing data accessibility, retention, and disposal
- Shared metadata standards and official data definitions
- Processes and standards to ensure data accuracy, completeness, and consistency
- Risk management and compliance with applicable laws and regulations
Institutional data governance is not:
- Solely a function of one area. It is shared across multiple domains to support data-driven decisions.
- Only data management and operations. It is the framework to guide those activities.
- Limiting data unnecessarily. Data governance ensures responsible data use.
- A top-down mandate. It is developed with input from multiple stakeholders.
Institutional data governance at Illinois is defined as the framework and processes that ensure the accuracy, consistency, security, and proper use of institutional data. It involves establishing policies and standards for data management, defining roles and responsibilities for data management, ensuring compliance with regulatory and institutional requirements to support decision-making and strategic goals, and widely communicating and educating the university community on these issues.
Institutional data governance structure
Illinois’ institutional data governance is structured across three levels: executive sponsor, the Institutional Data Governance Board, and Data Domain Stewardship Committees (DSCs). A data governance coordinator collaborates with each level of the framework to coordinate the institutional data governance initiatives and communicate information across the levels to execute the university’s data governance vision.
Executive Sponsor
The executive sponsor provides oversight and sets the institutional charge for data integrity, accessibility, and stewardship.
Roles and responsibilities:
- Provides top-level strategic direction of data governance efforts
- Reviews the Institutional Data Governance Board actions to ensure it aligns with the university’s strategic plan.
Institutional Data Governance Board (IDGB)
The IDGB provides oversight and management for the development of university policies and standards around data integrity, accessibility, and stewardship, and ensures that the efforts align with the overall strategic plan.
Roles and responsibilities:
- Monitors DSC membership and assesses the need for data domain modifications
- Receives updates from DSCs, including approving decisions on new data domain policies
- Drafts communication strategies regarding institutional data governance policies, builds networks around data domains, and submits data governance policies to the appropriate university bodies
- Coordinates with the University of Illinois System, including Chicago and Springfield representatives, to find collaborative opportunities
Data Domain Stewardship Committees
Data domains and subdomains have distinct data types that require unique policies, access requirements, and security/privacy considerations. DSCs were established for each area to develop tailored policies and standards. DSCs are responsible for advancing data ownership and stewardship; establishing procedures to audit and maintain data quality; defining standards for data security, privacy, and regulations; setting policies for data access; and creating and maintaining metadata for relevant data.
Data Domains
Six domains have been identified. Additional DSCs may be formed in the future, if deemed necessary.
Advancement, Alumni, and Foundation Data include constituent contact information, donation history, and engagement activities.
Financial Data include budgeting, accounting, tuition, fees, and grants.
Human Resources Data include employee records, faculty loads, payroll, benefits, performance evaluations, and recruitment.
Institutional Administrative Research Data include administrative data on research projects, funding, publications, and compliance with ethical standards.
IT and Systems Data include system logs, access controls, software inventories, network security, encryption data, and device access and location data.
Student and Academic Data: Student data include admissions, financial aid, enrollment, academic performance, demographics, and graduation, as well as learning analytics, student surveys, event and organizational participation, and housing data. Academic data include course catalogs, schedules, and curriculum details.
Roles and responsibilities:
- Ownership and stewardship of data
- Audit and maintain quality of data
- Develop security, privacy, and regulatory standards around the data
- Determine the circumstances under which individuals may access data
- Define processes for the creation and maintenance of metadata
- Establish task-specific working groups within the domain as needed
For institutional data governance questions, comments, or feedback, please contact dair@illinois.edu.