Informatics Europe Higher Education Data Portal

by franziska_hauffe, Jan. 10, 2020

During the 15th European Computer Science Summit in Rome, Informatics Europe launched the Informatics Higher Education Data Portal www.informatics-europe.org/data/higher-education/.

The Portal is an Informatics Europe project created to provide members, the Informatics academic community, policymakers, industry and other stakeholders a complete and reliable picture of the state of Informatics (Computer Science, Computing, IT, ICT) higher education in Europe.

The Data Portal offers user-friendly access to a wealth of fundamental data such as statistics of students enrolled and degrees awarded at Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD level, including gender distribution in absolute numbers and percentages, both at Research Universities and Universities of Applied Sciences. A range of qualitative data complements the statistics presented, including a list of subjects identifying Informatics programs and a list of universities and academic units (with direct links to their websites) offering Informatics higher education in each country.

ADVANTAGES OF DATA PORTAL

Members of Informatics Europe have the additional benefit of having privileged access and download rights of the whole dataset www.informatics-europe.org/data/higher-education/download.html.

The central role played by data curation, makes the data presented unique, reliable and relevant. The full data set – covering now over 20 countries across 8 years and annually updated in October – is collected from national sources across Europe and a considerable amount of time and effort is spent in carefully analysing and screening the raw data. Consulting with academics, who are active and knowledgeable in the field in their countries, is an integral part of the data curation process. This quality control allows us to publish statistics that indeed represent what we, as a community, understand and recognize as Informatics higher education studies and programs in Europe. The different national languages and semantics of the terms used to define the discipline in different countries were also carefully considered. The Portal was developed by Informatics Europe in collaboration with the Software Institute www.si.usi.ch/, Università della Svizzera italiana (USI).

Prof. Enrico Nardelli, Informatics Europe President says: “The Informatics Higher Education Data Portal www.informatics-europe.org/data/higher-education/ is one of the most useful and important services Informatics Europe can offer to its members, the community, industry and policymakers interested in the future of Informatics and ICT in Europe. It provides plenty of opportunities for data visualization and in-depth analyses of key trends, issues, and aspects that need or could be improved with a better understanding of the higher education system in the field. We hope it will work as a source of reliable facts and support EU and National policymakers in making informed, effective and beneficial policy decisions.”

The portal is online at: www.informatics-europe.org/data/higher-education/.

In previous years, the data has been shared with the community through the publication of the annual report series “Informatics Education in Europe: Institutions, degrees, students, positions, salaries – Key Data”, past editions can be downloaded at: www.informatics-europe.org/working-groups/data-collection-reporting.html.

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ABOUT INFORMATICS EUROPE

Informatics Europe represents the academic and research community in Informatics (or Computer Science) in Europe. Bringing together university departments and research laboratories, it creates a strong voice to safeguard and shape quality research and education in Informatics. With nearly 145 member institutions across 32 countries, Informatics Europe promotes common positions and acts on common priorities.

Visit www.informatics-europe.org to learn more.