Revealed: Durham modules ranked by student attainment in 2021-2022

The article demonstrates the transformative power of public data access by leveraging a Freedom of Information request to reveal detailed academic performance metrics. This transparency allows for the identification of significant disparities in student attainment across various subjects and year levels, highlighting how open data can uncover hidden trends within institutional records that are otherwise inaccessible to the general public. Key findings indicate substantial variation in grades, with Physics and English showing high average scores while foundation years and certain language modules lag significantly behind. The data exposes stark contrasts in specific modules, ranging from zero first-class grades in some art and language courses to overwhelmingly high success rates in others. These insights suggest that factors like module difficulty or assessment methods heavily influence outcomes, providing a granular view of academic success that was previously obscured. This report is highly relevant to the open_data community as it validates the practical utility of FOI releases in promoting institutional accountability. By making such specific performance data public, universities enable students and researchers to analyze educational quality and resource allocation more critically. It underscores how releasing raw data fosters a culture of transparency, allowing society to question and understand the structures of higher education through evidence-based inquiry rather than speculation.

Source: palatinate.org.uk
Published on 2024-07-19