Supporting increased student use of secondary data
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2025 6:42 am
‘I can’t find any data’
A further – more practical – barrier to secondary analysis are challenges students can encounter during the process. For instance, in the early stages, students need to find relevant data for their project. This step can be difficult at the best of times but especially difficult for anyone unfamiliar with relevant data sources or who are less clear about their research questions or the data they need.
‘It’s hard to understand the data’
Secondary analysis requires students to understand taiwan rcs data datasets that are often quite complex. And to understand these datasets, they need to navigate documentation that can be far from user friendly. Then, once they do find data, students can face a large amount of work to prepare the data for analysis.
The UK Data Service appreciates its role in supporting students to access and use data for research projects.
Dissertation Award
Starting in 2016, our dissertation award aims to promote and recognise dissertations based on secondary analysis. Each year, we review some excellent dissertations based on the analysis of data from the UK Data Service. Most entries use data from one of the national or cross-national social surveys such as Understanding Society and the Labour Force Survey. Notable examples include students comparing data before and after the pandemic to understand the impact of social environment and applying for special license data to link survey data to other sources. But overall, it is the variety of data and research questions that is impressive as well as the students who clearly articulate why the data they have used was the best option for answering their research question.
A further – more practical – barrier to secondary analysis are challenges students can encounter during the process. For instance, in the early stages, students need to find relevant data for their project. This step can be difficult at the best of times but especially difficult for anyone unfamiliar with relevant data sources or who are less clear about their research questions or the data they need.
‘It’s hard to understand the data’
Secondary analysis requires students to understand taiwan rcs data datasets that are often quite complex. And to understand these datasets, they need to navigate documentation that can be far from user friendly. Then, once they do find data, students can face a large amount of work to prepare the data for analysis.
The UK Data Service appreciates its role in supporting students to access and use data for research projects.
Dissertation Award
Starting in 2016, our dissertation award aims to promote and recognise dissertations based on secondary analysis. Each year, we review some excellent dissertations based on the analysis of data from the UK Data Service. Most entries use data from one of the national or cross-national social surveys such as Understanding Society and the Labour Force Survey. Notable examples include students comparing data before and after the pandemic to understand the impact of social environment and applying for special license data to link survey data to other sources. But overall, it is the variety of data and research questions that is impressive as well as the students who clearly articulate why the data they have used was the best option for answering their research question.