Maximizing Institutional Research Impact Through Building Relationships and Collaborating Within the Institution (original) (raw)
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The Practice of Institutional Research: Perception vs. Reality
1987
A pilot study was conducted to: examine the beliefs of Institutional Research (1R) managers and senior administrators concerning the function, purpose and priorities of IR; determine if beliefs have been translated into practice; ascertain the extent of congruence between perceptions and beliefs held at each level of management; any examine whether the beliefs of IR managers and current practices are consistent with what senior administrators believe should be the role of IR. Using a population of university centers and arts and sciences institutions in large, multi-campus, state-supported systems, 33 surveys were administered, 17 to IR managers (100% response rate) and 16 to senior administrators (64.7% response rate). Results included the following: (1) only 26.7% of IR managers and 54.5% of senior administrators believe that general institutional expectations are realistic and clear; (2) only 37.6% of IR managers and 72.7% of senior administrators believe that faculty members possess a positive perception of IR; (3) both groups believe that IR functions should include data collection, analysis and dissemination; state and federal reporting, policy-oriented research, serving as a clearinghouse for data, defining the institutional database and projecting enrollment; and (4) 100% of senior administrators and 73.3% of the IR managers believe that IR should measure outcomes. Data are provided in four tables. Contains 10 references. (KM) XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. X
2015
The purpose of this reflective study is to examine the extent to which data driven assessment undertaken through Institutional Research, has been strengthened to guide decision making at the St. Augustine Campus. This was identified as an evident weakness of the Campus in the Institutional Accreditation review of 2011. Special attention will be given to the role of the Campus Office of Planning and Institutional Research (COPIR) in not only leading the effort of Institutional Research, supported by a Business Intelligence (BI) system, but also in providing the empirical data to measure institutional performance and assessment. The study will draw on some specific projects which were undertaken by COPIR to provide evidence of particular findings and emerging trends in student and graduate enrolment, progression, and attrition, as well as feedback gathered from institutional surveys. The data generated has served to inform campus management decision making and supports the development of policy, practice and process more strategically. In an environment where higher education is continuously evolving, and institutions are being held more accountable, institutional research will play an increasingly more important role in responding to the needs of its various stakeholders. It is therefore imperative that COPIR strive to strengthen its capacity to provide evidence-based information to improve the rigors of an information management system whilst drawing on the comparative work of peer institutions and keeping abreast of disciplinary best practices.
Effective Institutional Research: Overcoming the Barriers. AIR 1998 Annual Forum Paper
1998
This paper describes a methodology for helping institutional research assess its roles and its effectiveness in supporting decision-making at all institutional levels. The paper discusses how to meet this goal by planning, doing, checking, and acting. Planning requires the understanding of the roles of the data custodian, the broker, and the information user. Doing involves performing these roles through five sequential steps. Checking requires understanding and overcoming barriers to effectiveness. Acting involves using strategies to integrate and interpret information in order to enhance its value to the institution. Individual sections of the paper define the term institutional research, establish the framework of the model, and discuss management of the various institutional research functions. Recommendations and suggestions for overcoming barriers are discussed. A table listing barriers to effective institutional research is appended. (Contains 15 references.) (CH)
Developing Institutional Indicators: The Role of Institutional Research
Universities are coming under increasing pressure to demonstrate accountability in operations that affect student enrollment and that contribute to the increased cost of higher education. Institutional researchers are responding by working to provide strategic data-driven decision support that enables managers to evaluate the benefit of dollars spent on both instructional activities and non-classroom activities. While tools such as key performance indicators are useful for study of traditional activities, these tools frequently lack the flexibility to describe and generate all types of data required by the diverse, complex non-classroom activities of successful universities. This paper demonstrates how this problem can be addressed by involving relevant personnel in identifying mission-based success factors, indicators and learning assessments within key decision domains. A methodology is demonstrated that links assessed outcomes in Student Affairs to University strategic purposes. ...
1996
A survey of institutional researchr,rz at 243 New England colleges and universities examined respondents' (N=127) views on the current and projected roles of institutional research. Results document limited resources particularly in small institutions. Also, a majority of institutional researchers reported that they were engaged extensively in doing administrative reports; only a minority were conducting policy studies. Bivariate analyses revealed the strongest relationships between the institution's size and the scope of the institutional research function, the reporting relationship, and the size and qualifications of the institutional research staff. Multivariate analysis identified the size of the institutional research staff and the qualifications of the institutional research director is significant predictors of involvement in planning and policy studies. These data indicate the need to enhance the presence, qualifications and level of activity of institutional researchers in order to strengthen their contribution to institutional decision making. Recommendations address the need to: (1) enhance the capacity for conducting complex research studies, (2) shift the focus from reporting to research, (3) strengthen the capacity for institutional research at small colleges, (4) create and support high level audiences for institutional research studies, (5) increase involvement in academic studies, and (6) expand the focus of institutional research to include relevant factors and trends in the external environment. (Contains 11 references.) (Author/DB)
In the COVID-19 Era, Refocus Institutional Research on University Needs
University World News, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic is all absorbing, requiring university leaders and academic staff to deal with major transitions in teaching to on-line formats, probable declines in revenue, hiring freezes and layoffs, and attempting to plan for what lies ahead. To navigate this difficult path, universities need to intensify their institutional data collection and analysis. Yet most universities, especially outside of the US and a few other countries, have limited formal policies and strategies for gathering institutional data, and for employing trained staff to generate the information and analysis required for competent, informed, and innovative management, with or without the world changing circumstance of a pandemic. Internationally, the primary catalyst for increasing institutional research (IR) capacity has been largely reactive, focused on satisfying the growing demand of ministries of education for data to meet evolving accountability schemes and to participate in the global ranking game of universities. Combined, this has led to relatively new campus efforts to generate and maintain databases and formulate strategies for boosting citation index scores and similar measures of research output, and not much else. Universities should generate, organize and use data for their own strategic purposes. As argued in the book The New Flagship University: Changing the Paradigm from Global Ranking to National Relevance, the best universities focus on their internal behaviors and policies with the goal of informed institutional self-improvement in every aspect of their teaching, research, and public service missions. The IR capability of a university is a key component to this end. It also may well prove a market advantage for universities dealing with the COVID-19 era. Challenges of Refocusing IR Universities collect and analyze myriads of data about their admissions, student learning, faculty performance, operations, infrastructure and finance. However, most of the collected data is underutilized. This is especially true within centrally steered higher education systems that is the norm throughout much of the world. There is also a long tradition of short-term university leadership who have expertise in academic affairs, but with little executive management experience or a sense of limited ability to engage in strategic planning. In these circumstances, university leaders and staff or most in need of an organized IR effort that can inform decision-making. Yet most universities have placed a low priority on IR capacity, and have taken a piecemeal approach by identifying a problem or challenge for the university and then seeking the time and effort of a faculty person to provide analysis-sometimes with limited data and expertise for such an analysis. Indeed, many universities have only recently established IR offices with centralized data hubs.