(Un)certain and (ir)regular futures: graph chart visualizations of forecasting in higher education

While previous educational governance literature on datafication has paid attention to comparison across spatial entities like countries and schools, temporal comparison in terms of progression (including prediction) has received less attention. One of the material forms in which progression and prediction data are circulated is the visual form of the time-series graph chart. The article deploys social topology to analyze the relational and geometrical practices deployed in visualizations of progression and prediction, including how these practices configure the future. The article examines graph charts in two cases of forecasting reports in higher education, including a forecast of higher education demand from the UK and a forecast of graduate production and labor market needs from Norway. Based on this examination, the article demonstrates how particular visualizations that connect data into curves, prolong irregular pasts into smooth futures, and contrast trends enact certain and regular but risky futures in higher education.