How do different stakeholders utilise the same data? The case of school leavers’ and graduates’ information systems in three European countries

This paper analyses how three European countries produce and use data within a specific educational policy field, that of school leaving and graduation. It compares how stakeholders in England, Finland and the Netherlands know what happens to the leavers from schools and universities. Through gathering evidence about the methodological underpinnings of the school leavers’ and graduates’ information systems (SLGIS) and whose data needs they aim to satisfy, this research provides insight into the discrepancies of data production. Moreover, as stakeholders from the policy and the institutional level are represented to a different extent when SLGIS are set up, the utility of the resulting data in their work is of differing degrees. The paper models the problems of how SLGIS are set up and utilised, thus suggesting some of the possible solutions. Using this particular example, the paper highlights the discrepancies of data production and utilisation in terms of the focus, the timing, the methodology and sampling as well as the processes of dissemination. To provide a wider relevance, the paper outlines key issues around the utility of research evidence.