Recognizing the complexity of the diverse data at Queen's, we have used different strategies to ensure each data type is managed effectively according to its specific needs. Data domains and data sub-domains have been developed to create a logical representation of a category or grouping of organizational data that is designated, named, and for which accountability is assigned.
There are 20 domains into which university data has been categorized. Each domain has a designated Data Trustee.Expand to find the Data Trustees and domains for each group of university data.
| Data Domains | Data Trustees | Domain Description |
|---|---|---|
| Analytics and Performance | Executive Director, Institutional Research and Planning | Comprises descriptive and usage data for surveys and analytics content of enterprise data (e.g., dashboard visualizations, reports, and sourced datasets) |
| Government and External Reporting | Executive Director, Institutional Research and Planning | Tracking and reporting data around engagement with, government officials, other educational institutions and the local community that benefit the university. |
| Faculty | Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic) | Data about a person related to their role as faculty and includes data on profile, activities, recruitment, awards, training, and development. |
| Library | Data that help make library resources available to the university community. These include data on collections, catalogs, purchasing, access, discoverability, services, and resource or space use. | |
| Student (all except non-credit) | University Registrar | Data about student profile, recruitment and admissions, enrolment management, funding assistance and awards, career services, advising, health and wellness and student engagement with the university. |
| Teaching and Learning | Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic) | Data that is generated through activities involving teaching, learning, learners’ interactions, and engagement. It includes teaching-focused data such as curriculum and course reviews, teaching spaces, teaching reviews and awards. Learning-focused data is data generated through activities of learners as they interact with the university and its information systems. Learning data includes learner assessment data in learning management systems, digital interactions of learners and survey data related to learning experience. |
| Data Domains | Data Trustees | Domain Description |
|---|---|---|
| Advancement | Senior Executive Director, Advancement Operations | The Advancement domain captures data on constituent engagement, philanthropy, and affiliation with the university and includes biographic, engagement activity, philanthropic history, prospect research, and analytics. It also includes data related to mass communication and marketing activities for Advancement programs. |
| Data Domains | Data Trustees | Domain Description |
|---|---|---|
| Culture, Equity, and Inclusion Data | Executive Director, Office of the Vice Principal (Culture, Equity, and Inclusion) | Data domain encompasses information on bio-demographics (race, gender etc.), workforce diversity, human rights compliance, sexual violence, and diversity initiatives, among others, all aimed at promoting a culture of fairness, inclusion, and equal opportunity within organizations and communities. Data on indigenous initiatives and reconciliation, data recorded on Indigenous people, communities, resources, and lands, etc. |
| Data Domains | Data Trustees | Domain Description |
|---|---|---|
| Facilities and Space | Associate Vice Principal (Facilities) | Facilities data capture information that helps ensure the functionality, comfort, and efficiency of a built environment, as well as the safety of the Queen's community and physical spaces. This includes data about space and equipment management, physical plant operations, mail services, transportation and parking operations, public and environmental safety, and grounds keeping and maintenance. |
| Finance | Associate Vice Principal (Finance and Administration) | Financial data includes data on revenue, expenses, cash flows and any other information that is a part of and subject to an external audit in the financial statements of the university. |
| Human Resources | Associate Vice Principal (Human Resources) | Human resources data includes records, staff profile and contact information, status, affiliation, employment category, union contract group, compensation and labor distribution, time and labor, benefits, and recruitment details. |
| Information Technology | Chief Information Officer and Associate Vice Principal | Comprises data about user community, identity data, technology assets and technology services that inform the management of information technology services. This includes data related to technology infrastructure, network and telecommunication, computing, business intelligence, central electronic accounts, and IT professional services. |
| Internal Audit | Director, Internal Audit | Internal Audit domain comprises data related to the audit work and audit reports related to all internal audits conducted by the university. |
| Risk and Safety | Executive Director, Risk and Safety Services | Information about user community, data and technology assets that inform threats, vulnerabilities and risks and its management. |
| Data Domains | Data Trustees | Domain Description |
|---|---|---|
| International Engagement | Director, International, Global Engagement | Data related to the university's international and global activities, including international partner profile, international engagement, etc. |
| Data Domains | Data Trustees | Domain Description |
|---|---|---|
| Governance and Policy | University Secretary | Information collected for the management and administration of university-wide governance bodies, including the Board of Trustees, Senate, and University Council, as well as applicable governance body committees. Information collected for the management of university-wide policy approval and maintenance. |
| Legal and Regulatory | General Counsel, Office of the Legal Counsel | Data used to track the progression of legal claims made against the university (including civil, criminal, regulatory, medical malpractice, and employment-related claims), to track expenses incurred, and financial exposure associated with such claims or generated to support legal compliance. Information collected for regulatory compliance for information access, handling, storage, and transfer. |
| Domains | Data Trustees | Domain Description |
|---|---|---|
| Community Engagement and External Relations | Associate Vice Principal, Integrated Communications | Tracking data around engagement with alumni, donors, companies, parents, government officials, other educational institutions and the local community that benefit the university in areas such as research, philanthropy, entrepreneurship, career opportunities, and economic development. |
| Communications and Marketing | Associate Vice Principal, Marketing and Brand | Communications data relates to content performance metrics (social, web, newsletter, podcasts, events, search rankings, keyword tagging, etc.) and includes audience data (demographic, psychographic and content usage data) as well as tracking of strategic initiatives, available channels, and competitive data for benchmarking. |
| Domains | Data Trustees | Domain Description |
|---|---|---|
| Research Administration | Associate Vice Principal, Research | Data on administration of research includes researcher profile, partner profile, patents and licenses, awards, expenditure, proposals, grant applications, budgets, and facilities etc. This does not relate to data produced through research but data about how research is taking place, identify research trends, sponsorship, faculty engagement, regulatory reviews, and entrepreneurial success. |
Development of Domains and Sub-Domains
The development of domains started with using a baseline categorization of data into domains based on models followed by Canadian and US universities as well as the higher education from (February 2024 release)*.
Using this baseline, the final designation of data domains, and the Data Trustees for each domain, has been done through discussions with members of the Data Governance Council that includes senior leaders from faculties, departments, and shared services units.
*EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association of higher education institutions across North America with a mission to advance the strategic use of technology and data. Their Higher Education Reference Models offer standardized business and data blueprints that deliver a perspective on the structural organization of higher education institutions and help standardize an institution's business, data, and application frameworks.
To effectively manage quality, risk classification, data definitions and integrity, and to aid the implementation of data policies and procedures, the domains have been further classified into clusters of subject matter called sub-domains. The sub-domains allow for assigning data stewardship roles for enhanced granularity and accountability at an operational level.
Data Trustees work with the Data Strategy and Governance Office to identify sub-categories (sub-domains) within their domain. They also help in developing an inventory of the data types available within a domain. The following guidelines are being used for sub-categorizing data:
- Allocating sub-domains based on business responsibility is used as a starting point.
- Further fine-tuning of the allocated areas is done through discussions with the leadership team of Data Trustees to arrive at a final sub-domain categorization.
The domains and sub-domains together make up the Queen's data model.
Data Stewards are designated individual(s) authorized by the Data Trustees who have direct operational responsibility for management of one or more sub-domains of institutional data. Data Stewards are the focal point for on-the-ground data governance activity and issue resolution. They finalize business definitions, and manage and maintain data quality and integrity through data systems.
- After finalizing the sub-domains (in progress), Data Trustees will appoint Data Stewards for each sub-domain. These Stewards may be team members or individuals outside the team who are assigned primary operational responsibility for data in a sub-domain.
- A Data Steward's role is not predicated on their expertise with a data system, but rather on their expertise about the data in a sub-domain used in a data system. It revolves around stewardship and making key decisions about data quality, control and usage, and the definitions of data within a system. This role is in contract to that of a Data Custodian who is a technology specialist with authority over system operations and management, including platforms and servers that gather, handle, and give access to data.
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