The US Association for Institutional Research is quite serious about utilising their data archives and improving research in postsecondary educational institutions. This fellowship program for attending the Summer Data Policy Institute (June 8 - 15, 2008) and learning how to use their postsecondary education databases is open for researchers form all countries. (NB. The AIR's databases might be a useful resource for comparative educational research.)
Core URLs:
Other related links and thoughts are in the blog
Researcher's margin
It seems that most countries have already generated quite large social and educational data archives: US (NCES, NSF), Australia (ASSDA), UK (EDINA, MIMAS, UK data archive, AHDS) and others (URL). Of course, these datasets are mainly from various censuses and large international, national and state surveys. Nevertheless, it is obvious that they are a rich source for new and meaningful research discoveries.
It is also obvious that most counties struggle getting something useful out of these data archives. The US, UK and some other counties obviously adopted "push-type" strategies. This approach looks compelling and promising. Even if various courses, scholarships and fellowships do not immediately result into new research outputs, it is probably a wise investment into research capacities and social research quality - might be a good supplement, if not an alternative, to the RQF, if we are serious about educational research quality.