Data USA adds more than 7,300 profiles of higher education institutions to visualization platform

WASHINGTON, April 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Data USA has released new data visualization profiles summarizing the costs, demographics, debt, acceptance rates, financial aid, and endowments of more than 7,300 universities and higher education institutions in the US. The visualizations make available data from the US Department of Education's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data Systems (IPEDS).

Data USA is a free, open data platform created in collaboration between Deloitte, MIT, and Datawheel. Data USA integrates, visualizes, and distributes data from multiple public sources and has grown in its first two years to more than 300,000 monthly users, becoming one of the main sources for Americans to access public data.

"The new university profiles will allow students, parents, and school counselors, to understand the cost, demographics, and career opportunities of thousands of US universities," said César Hidalgo, director of MIT's Collective Learning group and a co-founder of Datawheel.

"Whether you are a student or parent, researcher, journalist, employer, or curious citizen, these new data visualizations offer greater insights into the composition of colleges and universities around the country and the integral role they play in the overall job market," said Matt Gentile, principal, Deloitte Transactions and Business Analytics LLP, and one of the Data USA project lead sponsors. "With the vast amounts of open government data, we're closing the gap in making that data useful, understandable, and actionable."

"IPEDS data is extensive, but to most individuals who are not thoroughly familiar with the intricacies of the formats involved, translating the raw data into useable information is a daunting task," said Jeffrey Bradfield, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP and national higher education practice leader. "With this new interface, the data is now more accessible to people inside and outside the higher education community."

The new higher education profiles provide a robust amount of data visualizations, including:

• Admissions and financial aid
• Majors, time to complete degrees, and jobs of graduates
• Diversity of student and faculty populations
• Staffing, expenses, and operations

Additionally, the individual institution profiles that also include automatically generated comparison data from peer institutions.

Data USA is the most comprehensive visualization engine for shared US government data to date, aggregating and visualizing publicly available data from multiple sources including the Department of Labor, Department of Commerce, the Census, and Department of Education, among others.

Data USA is freely available and users can browse the data and gain insights using filters or target their view using search tools. The code is open source, and the platform is scalable, allowing for new data to be added. Application developers can build on the Data USA platform using the API and integrate additional data for custom use.

About Deloitte
Deloitte provides industry-leading audit, consulting, tax and advisory services to many of the world's most admired brands, including more than 85 percent of the Fortune 500 and more than 6,000 private and middle market companies. Our people work across more than 20 industry sectors to make an impact that matters — delivering measurable and lasting results that help reinforce public trust in our capital markets, inspire clients to see challenges as opportunities to transform and thrive, and help lead the way toward a stronger economy and a healthy society. Deloitte is proud to be part of the largest global professional services network serving our clients in the markets that are most important to them. 

About the Collective Learning Group at The MIT Media Lab
The Collective Learning group at The Media Lab studies how teams, cities, and nations learn. Lead by professor Cesar Hidalgo, the Collective Learning group studies the diffusion and accumulation of knowledge, the diversification of economies, and also, creates tools to facilitate learning in teams, organizations, and nations.

About Datawheel
Datawheel is a company specialized in the creation of custom data integration, visualization, and distribution solutions. It has designed and engineered numerous data integration, visualization, and distribution projects, including Data USA, DataViva (Brazil), and DataChile. Learn more at www.datawheel.us.

Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the "Deloitte" name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms.

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SOURCE Deloitte