6 weeks ago, we launched a data visualisation competition with David McCandless. The brief was based on some data that David had collected about the ethnicity of student attending elite universities in the UK.
After much deliberation by our expert panel of judges, the votes are now in.
1st Place
(Interactive – built in html5)
by Raphael Halloran
View the interactive version here
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2nd Place
by Dave Bowker
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3rd Place
The contestant in third place, Jon Schwabish from Washington, describes himself as “very much a newbie”. This is only his second ever infographic – a very promising start!
by Jon Schwabish
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Highly Recommended
by Karl Sluis
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Highly Recommended
(Interactive Visualisation using InstantAtlas)
by Gareth Piggott
View the interactive version here and more information about this entry here
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Highly Recommended
(Interactive – built using JavaScript)
by Kevin Lynagh
View the interactive version here
During his work for the competition, Kevin cleaned up some UCAS data and has made it publicly available here.
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Highly Recommended
(Interactive visualisation using Tableau Software)
by Andy Kriebel
View the Interactive Version here
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by Ashley Browning
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by Thomas Clegg
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by Sara Ho
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by Rupert Stechman
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by Matteo Brambilla
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by Lemuel Dix
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View the interactive version here
by Kelly Martin
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by Kathleen Champ
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by Jen Lowe
View the interactive version here
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by Diego Althabegoiti
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by Crystal Joseph
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by Corinne Pritchard
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by Joanne Batchelor
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by Catherine Wicks
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by Rahma Utami
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Data Journalism
The following is a self-declared ‘non-entry’ from Richard Oldham. Richard explains ”I have to accept this is a NON-ENTRY because it fails on two counts. Firstly, it’s about elitism in the selection process at Oxbridge rather than the proportion of black students at Oxbridge and secondly and most importantly it’s not based upon real data. I based my info graphic on the data from The Sutton Trust’s, University Admissions by Individual Schools, February 2008”
“I wanted to produce a chart showing every schools average grades at A-Levels and then the average grade for entry into Oxbridge. Sadly, while the information on each schools average entry grade to Oxbridge is available I was unable to get this information in time for the deadline. I spoke with The Sutton Trust, who said they may be able to give me the data for free but not before the 20th June deadline.”
“Likewise, I also spoke to UCAS, they said they’d be able to give me this data, but at a cost of £250. So because the information show on the table is not from real data, but instead from an intelligent estimate based upon statements and data in The Sutton Trust report, this can’t be a real submission. Still I’ve spent a bit of time on this so it’s a shame not to send it in.”
We’re glad Richard did send it in. And look forward to hearing how he gets on in his investigation.
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Visual Metaphors
Another entry which caught our attention is included below. Having tried different charts and graphs, Luigi Masi decided a headline statistic and visual metaphor was the best way to go. We admire his boldness in this approach, and not feeling obliged to force the information into a visualisation. However, the Maths don’t quite add up unfortunately. Nice idea though.
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Thank you
It has been a great experience running the competition, and we were delighted with the level of interest, as well as the support we received from the data visualisation community.
We are also indebted to our judges for giving their time and expertise to help select the winners.
And of course, many thanks are due to David McCandless for taking a punt and allowing us to run this competition with him.
Thank you to all involved. And congratulations once again to our winners!
So what did you think?
We’d love to hear your thoughts on the competition in the comments section below…
4 Comments
Alex Kerin on Tuesday (5th) July, 7:47 pm
Some great entries in the competition. I never had time to complete my entry, but what struck me was that the data to prove the original point (is there racism inherent in the selection process?) was never asked for, nor is available free, by the journalists and ministers who first addressed the issue.
The data set that is needed is ethnicity, A-level grades and subject by course and university. In its rebuttal of racism charges, Oxford goes as far to say that the reason the success gap is so large is that black students are more likely to apply to oversubscribed courses. However Oxford’s statement, the UCAS data sets, nor the original FOI request resulted in that data being available.
Looking through data that is available does show some interesting results. Applications from black students as a percent have shown the biggest gains over the last decade compared to other ethnicities, and the grades of those students have been progressively getting better (160% increase in number of black students getting 3As or more from 2003 to 2010, compared to 31% increase in white students). However, there is still an ethnic gap at the top, with the proportion of black students being considerably lower compared to the proportion of population.
So a few things, Oxford should do some analysis to prove their statement on black student application to oversubscribed courses and journalists need to learn how to ask the right questions and for the data to back up those assertions.
Finally, perhaps it’s time for Oxbridge to look at the Harvard model where high-flying black students are actively encouraged to apply (http://bit.ly/kg70Dj).
Ching on Wednesday (6th) July, 4:30 am
Hi Mark
Great post and lovely to see so many students working on infographics/ some form of data visualisation. Would you be able to share the contact details of the applicants? I would love to get in touch in regards to a survey to create a better user interface in terms of creating infographics.
Thanks very much
Ching
Mark on Wednesday (6th) July, 10:58 am
Alex – great to have your comments on here. Some real food for thought there, and further evidence that digging around in the related datasets could really reveal where efforts to improve the situation would be best applied.
Ching – thanks for your comments, but unfortunately, no, I won’t be releasing the contact details of the entrants. Good luck with the survey though. If you tell me where it is, I’ll fill it in myself.
sajid on Wednesday (10th) August, 9:14 am
Hi…….! I am Sajid from Pakistan and I have some questions to ask .I want to continue my studies, I have done my masters and now interested in doing m.phil but I can’t take the regular classes I wanted to do it online does your university offer online postgraduate studies and is it affiliated?Plz reply Thankyou….!