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Data Requests and Data Protocols
People requiring tailor-made datasets, analyses or spreadsheets should first read through the Higher Education Data Protocols and then indicate their requirements by completing the Data Request Form. The Department charges for data requests.
From 1 January 2016, the Australian Government changed the Higher Education Statistics Collection charging policy for customised data requests in response to the Review of Australian Government Charging. The charge for bespoke data requests is $161 per hour (exclusion of GST), with a minimum charge of $100 (plus GST).
Please be aware that due to the large number of customised requests received, they will be placed in a queue. We will attempt to provide data within four weeks, although more complex requests will take longer. No work will be undertaken until approval to proceed is given by the data requestor.
Requests or enquires about data requirements should be emailed to: University-Statistics@education.gov.au
Data Privacy
Under the Higher Education Support Act 2003, sections 179-5, 10, 15, 20(c) and the Privacy Act 1988, section 14 (IPP11), it is an offence to release any information that is likely to enable identification of any particular individual.
To avoid any risk of disseminating identifiable data, a disclosure control technique called data suppression has been utilised. Cells that have values of less than five have been primarily suppressed and annotated as ‘< 5’. To prevent cells that have been primarily suppressed from being calculated, other cells may also need to be suppressed. This is known as consequential or secondary suppression. These cells are annotated as ‘np’ (not published). In the data cube (uCube), a disclosure control technique called input perturbation has been applied to the data, whereby small random adjustments are made to cell counts.
This is applicable to all of the Department of Education, Skills and Employment’s Higher Education data that is either published on the Department’s website or custom tabular data provided to clients.
Visual Analytics
The Department publishes a selection of higher education data through visual analytics using Microsoft Power BI. Basic instructions outlining the functionality of these reports can be found in the Brief Guide to Visual Analytics Using Power BI.