Big Data Analytics in the Higher Education: Need of the Future

Abstract

The twenty-first century can be said as the era of engulfing data. From social networking sites to politics, from businesses to education, all sectors of the modern world are flooded with voluminous data. As Alan Kay quotes “this is the century in which you can be proactive about the future; you don’t have to be reactive”, big data analytics can be the tool and the need of the future to predict the trends, detect the challenges, and leverage the opportunities. Among various sectors like business, social networks, entertainment, politics, educational institutions are seen and expected socially to be more transparent and accountable. With these growing concern and hunger for the academic excellence both to individuals and institutions as well, it becomes inevitable to implement big data analytics in the educational institutions. Its proper implementation can bring the revolutionary development on the education sector. Instead of some inherent challenges, big data analytics can represent customized learning environments to the learners, can reduce potential dropouts, lower the academic risks, complexity could be reduced and can enhance the quality of education system as a whole. The main objective of this paper is to highlight on the emergent need and scope of big data analytics in the educational sector.