SBRI: higher education open data, digital tools for prospective students

Tender description

Across the UK, prospective higher education students often make uninformed decisions about where and what to study. The competition's aim is to ensure prospective students have access to data about the outcomes of subjects and Higher Education providers. This is to help them make informed decisions about where and what to study. The Department for Education (DfE) is looking for ideas for creating free, accessible, commercially sustainable and innovative digital tools to help prospective students make better decisions about their future. These must: • be based on graduate salary and employment outcomes • use the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) earnings data and other relevant open data The first phase was an open competition hosted through Innovate UK's Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI). The department awarded five contracts of around £25,000 each to tech companies to develop a prototype. These contracts are for the second phase of the competition. The second phase was a closed competition between the five winners of phase 1 for two contracts of around £150,000 each. This is to develop a fully functioning digital tool, to launch in March 2019.