A Case Study of Spreadsheet Use within the Finance and Academic Registry units within a Higher Education Institution

TL;DR

This case study examines spreadsheet use in a UK higher education institution, highlighting its importance, common practices, and the need for clear guidelines to ensure data integrity and efficiency.

Contribution

It provides detailed insights into spreadsheet practices in academic and finance units, emphasizing the necessity for organizational principles and guidelines.

Findings

Large volume of spreadsheets used across units

Developers' profiles align with other studies

Need for clear principles to improve data integrity

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of a case study of spreadsheet use in a higher education institution in the UK. The paper considers the use of spreadsheets in two units of the organisation, academic registry and finance. Spreadsheet use is explored in terms of importance, training, experience, purpose, techniques deployed, size of spreadsheets created and sharing of spreadsheets. The implications of the results are then considered in terms of accurate reporting to external funding bodies such the funding councils, internal data integrity and internal data efficiencies. The results show a large volume of spreadsheets being created and used, that the profile of spreadsheet developers is typical of other studies of spreadsheet use and the need for the organisation to have clear principles and guidelines for the development of spreadsheet models in the organisation to ensure data integrity, reduce duplication of effort and to optimise the use of spreadsheets to meet the institutions goals.