Data Governance

Yale’s Data Governance program is a university-wide initiative focused on administrative data. It does not govern research or clinical data. Data governance supports efforts focused on responsible data use, data lifecycle management, and improved data quality to enable faster, more reliable reporting. Promoting data literacy across campus is also a key priority.

Mission

Provide a thoughtful and consistent framework for the management of institutional data that will enable responsible use of data, improve data quality, document data lineage, protect data assets, and promote data literacy.

Structure

The Data Governance program at Yale has four executive sponsors.

We also have a governing working group, called the Data Governance Council (DGC).

The DGEC defines Yale’s data domains and appoints a data steward for each domain. 

Yale’s data domains

At Yale, a data domain is a logical grouping of related institutional data that supports a specific business, academic, or administrative function. Data domains are defined by purpose, not by individual systems or tools.

A single data domain may include information that lives in multiple systems and is used by many offices across the university. Organizing data into domains helps ensure that responsibility for decisions about data, such as appropriate use, access, quality, and compliance, is clear and consistent.

Each data domain:

• Brings together related data based on business or institutional function
• May span multiple systems, applications, or repositories
• Has an assigned Data Steward responsible for decision‑making and oversight
• Uses sub‑domains to reflect operational or functional distinctions within the broader domain

This structure supports shared understanding, efficient decision‑making, and responsible data use across Yale.