Bachelor
There is an acute shortage of data scientists, with a recent McKinsey Global Institute report1 projecting a 50 per cent gap between demand and supply by 2018. Professionals with strong data management and analytic skills are in demand and projected to increase in the future.
This degree has been designed in consultation with industry including the Institute of Analytics Professionals of Australia and the leader in business analytics software - SAS.
Employers look for people who can hit the ground running. You'll learn the same software and technology used in the industry, so you'll be ready for the workplace when you graduate. During your studies, you'll develop strong communication skills that will prepare you to present clear ideas and important business decisions to both technical and non-technical stakeholders across all levels of an organisation.
This degree is informed by research and leading-edge developments in the industry, as well as research being carried out through the Data to Decisions Cooperative Research Centre (CRC). UniSA is the national headquarters for the $88 million CRC in big data. The Data to Decisions CRC is set to boost national security and places UniSA at the forefront of industry and academic research collaboration.
1 McKinsey Global Institute. Big Data: The next frontier for innovation, competition and productivity, May 2011
In this degree, you'll learn the core concepts of IT and then go on to specialise in analytics. You'll learn the latest tools and technology used by industry in big data analysis, statistics and project management.
You'll learn to:
You can tailor your degree to your interests and broaden your career prospects through your choice of electives. You can select four electives from any other UniSA Online degrees.
Technology reshapes the workforce, redefines jobs, and creates new roles never seen before. The explosion in device connectivity, increasing data volumes, combined with the rise of the Internet of Things and the impact of social media are all factors that will fuel exponential growth in IT and big data in the future.
If you're fascinated by new emerging digital technologies and the world of big data, a career in IT and data analytics can be an extremely rewarding profession. Professionals in this industry are well sought after by businesses in non-IT sectors, in areas like finance, accounting, insurance, healthcare, marketing, and professional services.
A UniSA Online IT and Data Analytics degree can help you pursue the following careers:
Data visualisation specialist: use visualisation tools and software to communicate information in different ways; present data in a way that is easy to understand, and spot patterns, trends and correlations; transform, improve and integrate data depending on business requirements; combine data sets across multiple sources; and deliver data in a useful and appealing way to users.
Data scientist: understand interfaces, data migrations, big data and databases; take the lead in processing raw data and determine the best types of analysis; mine large volumes of data to understand user behaviours and interactions, and communicate data findings to IT leadership and business leaders to promote innovation.
Business data analyst: work with stakeholders, analysts and senior management to understand business strategy and the questions that need to be asked; identify research needs; design experiments and make recommendations based on results; drive complex analytics projects to support the business.
Web and software developer: develop, code, test and debug software applications; interpret customer requirements; work with a team to research, design, and write software; and work with others to understand and resolve issues in existing software.
Database designer: design stable and reliable databases; develop, test, improve and maintain new and existing databases to help users retrieve data effectively; and work closely with developers to ensure system consistency.
Chief data officer: lead the data and analytics priorities for an organisation; manage data as a strategic asset and operationalise data governance, data quality and other controls to sustain the integrity of data; and identify business opportunities through data.
Chief analytics officer: assess the most effective operating model and data approach to achieve business objectives; define and drive the enterprise-wide analytics vision across strategy, people, process, data and technology; and be heavily involved in business transformation, change and education needed to embed analytics into the organisational culture.
Data engineers: develop, construct, test and maintain architectures such as databases and large-scale processing systems; gather, process and transform raw data from different sources and third parties; and extract data from systems to develop insights and make business decisions.