Abstract

The strategic value of data has become evident across all dimensions of modern life, from individual daily activities to complex organizational processes. How institutions manage data and for what purposes they utilize it significantly influences the resolution of various operational and strategic challenges. Similarly, in higher education institutions, recognizing data as an institutional asset and managing it effectively has become increasingly important. The capacity of universities to make fast, accurate, and evidence-based decisions in their academic, administrative, and strategic processes is closely linked to the data governance approaches they adopt. This study aims to examine the current state of data governance policies in higher education institutions and to conduct an international comparison. To this end, publicly available data governance policies from a total of 146 universities in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia were analyzed using content analysis. The policy documents were thematically coded, and similarities and differences among countries were identified. The results reveal that each country has developed its own unique data governance approach shaped by national regulations, institutional priorities, and governance culture. However, it was also found that data governance practices in many of the universities reviewed have not yet reached a mature level and that there is significant room for improvement. This study offers a conceptual framework for higher education institutions at global, national, and regional levels, positioning itself as a reference point for the formulation of data governance policies and the advancement of standardization efforts in this domain.

Keywords: Data governance, higher education institutions, data governance policies, university business processes, data governance in universities

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License

Copyright (c) 2025 The author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

How to Cite

Tığ Demir, B., & Külcü, Özgür. (2025). Comparative Assessment of Data Governance Policies as Part of Business Processes in Universities. Information World, 26(2), 636-674. https://doi.org/10.15612/BD.2025.850