CoHE Launches “Big Data in Higher Education Project"
May 30, 2022 / Ankara
The Council of Higher Education launched the Big Data Project with the aim
of giving significant acceleration to Turkish Higher Education at national
and international level.
CoHE President Erol Özvar met with the eight rectors of the universities
selected as pilot universities, and academics who took part in the project
at the meeting held at CoHE.
In his opening speech, Özvar stated that he believed the project would open
a new page in higher education in Türkiye and said, "Those who cannot
protect their data cannot protect their university."
-The Project is Implemented in Eight Pilot Universities-
CoHE President Özvar stated that the Big Data Project, which was evaluated
by the CoHE Advisory Board, was launched in eight pilot universities,
including Istanbul Technical University, Middle East Technical University,
Atatürk University, İzmir Katip Çelebi University, Sabancı University,
Fırat University, Sakarya University and Trabzon University.
He noted that the discovery and widespread use of large amounts of data
obtained from different sources would accelerate Turkish higher education
at national and international level and said, “Big data promises unique
opportunities in higher education, education and research.”
He pointed out that the number of professional researchers who study and
know the subject in depth was far less than necessary and said, "228
theses, including 57 doctoral and 171 master's theses, were written at
Turkish universities between 2003 and 2022. This project will also be
instrumental in raising a new academic audience in these fields.” He
emphasized that the concepts of trust and ethics should be taken into
consideration in big data studies.
Özvar said that the studies on storing, processing, evaluating, analyzing
and obtaining the necessary and meaningful knowledge from the collected
data of the fluid, high-volume speed and variety of data, which exceed the
processing capacity of traditional database management systems as a result
of high technological advances, were named as "big data". He added that
they were working with new methods to produce new technologies and
techniques to obtain, store and analyze big data.
"It will be Used to Take Critical Decisions in Higher Education"
He pointed out that while the largest data size was terabytes in the 1990s,
it had become petabytes in the 2000s and exabytes in the 2010s and
continued his speech as follows:
"As of today, it is known that the amount of data stored, such as zettabyte
for 1.000 exabytes and yottabyte for 1.000 zettabytes, is constantly
increasing. Information is collected from traditional unstructured data by
means of data mining when creating big data, the collected information is
transformed into structured data, and at the last stage, the data is
interpreted and evaluated. A large amount of numerical data and texts can
also be analyzed with audio recordings and video images. For instance, the
big data tools in higher education will be used in studies to analyze the
individual performance and skill levels of students."
Özvar stated that these studies would be gathered separately for
decision-makers, students and faculty members of universities, and that the
quality of education would increase with more advanced curricula in the
field of education.
"In these days of digital transformation, high technology and innovation,
the discovery and analysis of invaluable knowledge in a large amount of
data obtained from many different sources will be used for critical
decisions we will take in higher education. Subjects such as measurement
and evaluation in education, research methods, career choices of students,
distribution capacities of quotas, and quality and performance of education
will be analyzed with the help of the Big Data Project.”
"Our Project Represents the Advanced Stage of the Digital
Transformation Project"
CoHE President Özvar said that the Big Data in Higher Education Project
represented the advanced stage of the Digital Transformation Project
implemented in Türkiye.
Özvar pointed out that this stage would ensure that universities that
collect, produce and distribute enormous amounts of data own their data and
information within a systematic framework. He stated that the awareness of
universities would arise on this issue and that the ongoing works on
digital transformation infrastructure would be carried out to the next
level.
He emphasized that they had launched a project that would enable
universities to own the data they produce, preserve it in a systematic
framework and benefit from big data in their decision-making processes.
"We believe that those who cannot protect their data cannot protect their
university," he commented. "In this respect, the Big Data Project, which
represents the advanced level of digital transformation, is a project that
will allow 208 universities to digitally manage all their productions in
the fields of education, research, development and social responsibility at
their universities."
"It will be Implemented at all Universities"
Özvar stated that the results of the pilot implementation of the Big Data
Project would be shared with other universities and that all universities
would implement this project.
He stated that CoHE would evaluate the level reached by universities in big
data as the development measure, parameter or criterion of the university
and said, "We have implemented this project, which is an important phase of
the digital transformation put forward by our State, in coordination with
not only our universities, but also the representatives of the Digital
Transformation Office of the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye, other
public institutions and the private sector working on big data.
-The Greatest Mission of CoHE…-
CoHE President Özvar stated that the greatest mission of CoHE was to take
all kinds of measures to increase the national and international
competitiveness, international visibility and prestige of universities.
In his speech, Özvar expressed his gratitude to President Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan, who provided great opportunities for the implementation of the Big
Data Project, and thanked the universities and rectors who played an
important role in the implementation of the project.