Establishing Data Stewardship Models

Abstract

In the current world of enterprise-wide systems, business intelligence, and metrics, administrative data are increasingly recognized as an institutional asset that need to be managed carefully and used appropriately. Data stewardship provides higher education institutions with a way to carry out this task in a coordinated fashion and to serve their students, faculty, and staff well. A data stewardship program speaks directly to the university about the responsibilities of data curation and access.  Although it may be possible to have data stewards and even a data stewardship program without data governance in place, true data governance cannot exist without data stewards. This paper provides guidance on establishing a data stewardship program for administrative data. It clarifies the different types of data stewards and managers and their roles and responsibilities, where they reside in an organization, how they work with colleagues to ensure that the data are maintained, and what special skills or training are needed to meet both university responsibilities and best practices.

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