Colleges and universities depend upon external approvals from accreditors, government agencies, and national organizations. These approvals require periodic review of institution-prepared reports and self-studies documenting the continued validity of offered degrees and programs, student support and success, institutional effectiveness, and…

This article presents findings from a longitudinal case study of academic audit as enacted at a typical New Zealand university between 1994 and 2019. Academic audit is a higher education quality assurance methodology applied to New Zealand universities. The longitudinal study yielded findings that could not have been detected in a single,…

In 2021, the Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges (the RP Group) conducted a survey of institutional research, planning, and effectiveness (IRPE) offices in the California Community Colleges (CCC) system. The purpose of this survey was to: (1) Identify key research and planning priorities and activities of the IRPE…

Institutional researchers are often tasked with assessing why college-wide initiatives succeed or fail. This can be a difficult task: researchers need to discriminate between multiple feasible explanations, work with limited data, and produce compelling narratives. Process tracing is a qualitative methodology that enables researchers to make valid…