This chapter puts forth a model of student-success-focused policy development at small colleges that elucidates the role of the institutional research (IR) professional, highlighting how the breadth of roles and responsibilities that IR professionals serve at these institutions intersect with traditional training and background.

Tips for college policy analysts include these: acknowledge personal biases; be flexible and inclusive; be realistic but creative in framing recommendations; build an outspoken advisory team; anticipate repetition; see the broad picture and detail; understand that implementation is the key to good policy; and do not surprise the president. (MSE)

A discussion of the need for institutional research to address student financial aid issues in higher education outlines, first, a research agenda for use within institutions, and then presents a research agenda for emerging policy issues and the role that institutional research might play in positioning institutions to participate in national…

A university president advises policy analysts to understand the realities of institutional administration, including the power and influence of the board of trustees, time constraints, importance of ceremonies and symbols, administrative accountability, dangers of the rumor mill, problems in implementing policy recommendations, and the tendency…

Broad understanding of an institution is fundamental to strategic planning, and information and communication are integral parts of this understanding. An institutional fact book used at Georgia State University is discussed both as a basic information system and as a practical communication vehicle. (MLW)

Policy analysis is a real-world decision-making tool. Its literature is published most frequently in the fields of public administration, political science, organizational psychology, economics, and business administration. A review of this literature gives insight into its nature and practice. (MSE)

Policy analysis provides the framework for enrollment planning in the Arizona university system. The new planning model consists of a statement of principles, a five-year strategic plan, an enrollment demand model, determination of institutional capacities, development of strategies to meet demand, and analysis of policy choices and consequences.…

Both financial and nonfinancial costs of education, such as time, effort, risk, and social and psychological perceptions are considered as influences on consumer behavior and as elements that an institution can manage in its efforts to maintain or change its position in the market. (MSE)

Institutional researchers must be in the institutional planning process in the coming years if institutional research is to remain a viable administrative specialty. Politics is viewed in its purest sense as the influence individuals, organizations, or other entities have upon policy-setting and decision-making. (Author/MLW)

Assessments of campus climates can be difficult and be accomplished by several methods, according to purpose. However, a well-designed survey can yield comprehensive and substantive data about the characteristics of people in the institution, workings of programs and policies, and interaction of these elements to inform institutional decision…

Two senior administrators at the University of Delaware discuss the types of cost data that are ultimately useful for decision making and policy development. Describes the data collection format and provides examples of departmental workload verification data and departmental expenditures by object and function. Explains use of comparative…

The ways that institutional researchers can analyze the political nature of their institutions and better understand the role institutional research plays in that environment are suggested. The major strength of an institutional research office is information and the analysis of information. (Author/MLW)

Setting prices for undergraduate education and assessing their effects on consumers and institutions is complicated by widespread price discounting. Student aid programs, credit, subsidized employment, and tax policy can reduce the actual costs paid by students and their families. (MSE)

A review of the elementary ideas that are fundamental to most higher education resource models and necessary for understanding model-supported cost analyses. Analytic constructs providing information for policy decisions include the elementary model, the fundamental cost model, and the instructional cost index. (JT)

A discussion of college pricing policy results in three observations: (1) trends toward differentiation of base prices by program and other disaggregation such as level of study will continue; (2) competitive price discounting will intensify through the period of shrinking enrollments; and (3) for most families, discussion of college costs and…