Education Data

Education sources publish information about institutions, the campuses and locations where they operate, and the courses and programs they offer, together with fees, admissions information and, on some sources, ratings and rankings. Each source organizes this information in its own way.

The same institution, course or program can appear on several sources with different names, fields and formats. Structured collection helps organize these differences, so that institutions, courses and programs can be compared across sources.

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Education data is relevant to organizations that need a structured view of institutions and what they offer, including:

• Education businesses researching offerings
• Researchers studying education markets
• Institutions comparing courses and programs
• Education technology platforms building structured education datasets

Education data has a structure of its own. An institution offers courses and programs, and it operates from a location or, where a source displays them, from one or more campuses. Fees, admissions requirements and ratings attach to those courses, programs or institutions. Keeping these levels distinct is what makes an education dataset usable.

Education data is easier to work with when it is clear which level a record belongs to. The institution is the parent record, the courses and programs it offers link back to it, and fees, admissions information and ratings attach at the institution or course level. Deciding what each record in a dataset represents is one of the first choices in an education data project.

An institution is the parent record. It can be a school, a college, a university or a training provider, and it is identified by its name, its URL and its type. The courses and programs it offers link back to it.

The same institution, course or program can appear on more than one source under different names or with different fields. When a project draws on more than one source, matching decides, where possible, whether two records describe the same institution or the same course. The fields available for matching depend on what each source displays.

Location is recorded for the institution and, where a source displays campus information, for the campus. A location can include the address and the country.

An institution with more than one campus can appear on a source as one entry or as several, so it helps to decide early whether a record represents an institution, a campus or a course.

A course or program is what an institution offers. Where displayed, it has a name, a subject or discipline, a program level, a duration and a study mode, and it links to the institution that offers it. Eligibility information, where a source displays it, is recorded with the course or program.

Sources name and group courses, programs and subjects in their own way, so subjects and program levels from different sources may need to be aligned when data comes from more than one source.

Fees, admissions information and ratings and rankings attach to a course, a program or an institution, depending on the source. Fees can include tuition, course, application and registration fees, with a fee period and currency. Admissions information can include deadlines, requirements and intake information. Ratings and rankings are recorded as the source displays them, with the ranking category where shown.

All of this reflects what the source displayed at the time of collection.

The data types below reflect what education sources commonly display. Which of them apply depends on the project and on what each selected source publicly shows.

Institution data describes a school, college, university or training provider as a source displays it. Where publicly displayed, it may include:

• The institution name
• The institution URL
• The institution type
• The location
• The address
• The country
• Campus information
• The publicly displayed institution description
• Institution-level contact information, where publicly displayed

Course and program data describes what an institution offers. Where publicly displayed, it may include:

• The course name
• The program name
• The course URL
• The institution
• The subject or discipline
• The program level
• The course duration
• The study mode
• The course description
• Eligibility information

Fee data describes what a source displays for a course, program or institution. Where publicly displayed, it may include:

• The tuition fee
• The course fee
• The application fee
• The registration fee
• The fee period
• The currency
• Scholarship or discount information, where displayed
• Other publicly displayed charges

Fees are not displayed by every source, and the dataset reflects only what a source shows.

Admissions data describes how an institution or source publishes its entry information. Where publicly displayed, it may include:

• Application deadlines
• Admission requirements
• Eligibility criteria
• Entry requirements
• The application process
• Intake information
• Required documents, where publicly displayed

This is admissions information as it is published. It does not include applicant records.

Ratings and rankings data describes how a source rates or ranks institutions and courses. Where publicly displayed, it may include:

• The ranking
• The ranking category
• The rating
• The review count
• The institution
• The course or program

Ratings and rankings are limited to the figures a source displays. Review text is not collected.

Education data can come from a range of publicly accessible source types, including:

• Universities
• Colleges
• Course platforms
• Education directories
• Training providers
• Other online sources specified for the project

Collected information remains subject to each source’s access conditions and permitted use requirements. Not every source type applies to every project, and each source presents institutions and courses in its own way.

Education data projects usually start from a question about institutions, courses or programs. What the data describes is limited to what the selected sources publicly display.

Building a structured view of the institutions, courses and programs offered across selected sources: what is offered, in which subjects and study modes, at which locations and at what displayed fees.

Building structured datasets of courses and programs from selected education sources, and comparing them by subject, program level, duration, study mode and eligibility information where displayed.

Researching schools, colleges, universities and training providers: their types, locations and publicly displayed information, as listed by the selected sources.

Comparing the course and tuition fees that selected education websites display, with the fee type, fee period and currency needed to compare them.

Education projects are defined around the sources, the institutions in scope and the record that each row should represent. The main points to settle are:

• Source websites
• Institutions in scope
• Institution type, such as schools, colleges, universities or training providers
• Locations and campuses
• Subjects or disciplines
• Program levels
• Study modes
• Record level: institution, or course or program
• Required fields
• Fee types, fee period and currency
• Admissions information scope
• Ratings and rankings scope
• One-time or recurring collection

The scope is limited to publicly displayed institution, course and program information. Student records, applicant records, private student information, individual academic records, personal contact information and private teacher or professor information are outside the scope of this data.

A one-time collection captures selected sources at a single point and can support:

• Education research
• Course research
• Institution research
• Education database creation
• Tuition research

Recurring collection repeats the same sources and fields as timestamped snapshots of publicly displayed information, so that changes to courses, programs, fees and admissions information can be compared over time. How often data is collected depends on the project requirements. Each snapshot reflects what a source displayed when it was collected, and coverage depends on the selected sources.

A clear requirement makes it easier to choose the right sources and record structure. A project can be defined by the sources, the institutions, the courses and programs, the fields, the locations and the collection schedule. Once these are defined, we can review the project scope and confirm an approach.

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