Institutional research
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Institutional research is a broad category of work done at colleges and universities to inform campus decision making and planning in areas such as admissions, financial aid, curriculum, enrollment management, staffing, student life, finance, facilities, athletics, and alumni relations.
Institutional researchers generally collect, analyze, report, and warehouse quantitative and qualitative data on their institution's students, faculty, staff, curriculum and course offerings, and learning outcomes.
Institutional researchers are often involved in collecting and reporting information to government bodies like the United States Department of Education's Integrated Post-Secondary Education Data System and to a variety of informational guidebooks for prospective students and their families, such as the annual U.S. News & World Report college and university rankings. Institutional researchers often also share institutional data with one another so that they can compare their own practices and outcomes against those of similar colleges and universities. Organizations that facilitate this sort of cooperation include the Association of American Universities, the Higher Education Data Sharing consortium, the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, and others. Finally, institutional research is the source of much of the information that colleges and universities provide to regional and national accreditation bodies to document how the institution fulfills the standards for accreditation.[1]
More information about institutional research can be found at the Association for Institutional Research (AIR), an American professional organization whose purpose is to provide support and professional development opportunities to people doing institutional research. There are also a number of regional and state associations of institutional researchers in the United States, such as the Southern Association of Institutional Research, the North Carolina Association for Institutional Research and the Indiana Association for Institutional Research, as well as various international IR organizations such as the European Association for Institutional Research and the Southeast Asian Association for Institutional Research. Links to additional institutional research-related sites is also available from AIR.[2]
[edit] Becoming an institutional researcher
Nearly every institution of higher education has some version of an institutional research office, due to the ongoing need to provide current data to governments and other entities. While there is no single scholarly degree or set of skills that qualifies one to be an institutional researcher, useful skills include a working knowledge of research methods such as statistics, survey research, and focus groups; computer and database skills (using, for example, PSPP/SPSS, Gnumeric/Microsoft Excel, and other statistical packages); written and oral communications skills; attention to detail; and a knowledge of how institutions of higher education operate. Several American universities offer graduate certificate programs in institutional research, including Ball State University, Florida State University, Indiana University, University of Missouri, Penn State University, and San Diego State University.
