This chapter highlights some important themes from the previous chapters in this volume that will assist institutional research professionals and other higher education leaders interested in expanding use of facilities data in planning and decision making: (1) What you don't know can hurt you; (2) Operational systems are not designed to support ad…

This 2008 foundation report provides an opportunity to look back and ahead as the organization reviews what has been accomplished and identifies challenges to be tackled in the future in the areas of education, scientific and medical research, and the arts. Grant making from the perspective of grantees is presented in each area. [This document was…

This study reports how an institutional research office at a large public research university has taken the lead to call attention to retention problems, describe attrition/retention predictors, and influence policy. Building on existing retention theories and previous institutional research studies, the institutional research office began…

To help fulfill the goal of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), high-quality postsecondary education opportunities must be available to all students. In keeping with this goal, the Federal TRIO programs and Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program provide outreach and support to help low-income and first-generation college students, as…

Anatomy departments across Africa were surveyed regarding the type of curriculum and method of delivery of their medical courses. While the response rate was low, African anatomy departments appear to be in line with the rest of the world in that many have introduced problem based learning, have hours that are within the range of western medical…

In this article, Uma Jayakumar investigates the relationship between white individuals' exposure to racial diversity during college and their postcollege cross-cultural workforce competencies. Using survey data from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, housed in the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at…

The North Dakota University System (NDUS) is composed of two doctoral universities, two master's degree-granting universities, two universities that offer bachelor's degrees and five community colleges that offer associate and trade/technical degrees. Each institution is unique in its mission to serve the people of North Dakota. The "2009…

A study was done of the characteristics of institutional research in 51 academic health centers. Overall, slightly less than half of the centers had an identifiable institutional research unit. In general, the more autonomous the center from its parent campus, the more likely it was that it would have a separate institutional research unit. The…

This paper describes a personal computer spreadsheet set up to carry out hierarchical log-linear analyses, a type of analysis useful for institutional research into multidimensional frequency tables formed from categorical variables such as faculty rank, student class level, gender, or retention status. The spreadsheet provides a concrete vehicle…

An analysis of variance approach to estimating reliability is examined. This approach uses an internal-consistency index for estimating the reliability of survey instruments containing ranked items, and is recommended when the relative ranking of item means is of interest to survey researchers. The computation of this index is demonstrated using…

The Northern California Research Group (NORCAL) organized a series of workshops for occupational administrators designed to provide insight into research procedures and practices in areas including: program effectiveness, job placement services, needs assessment, program evaluation, and follow-up studies. (NHM)

Describes a project at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, to illustrate the conflicts of doing research on social problems in a university setting. It was concluded that doing research on social problems affects the conduct of science as it relates to control and self-determination over research. (Editor/PG)

Of 460 two-year colleges responding to a national survey in 1973-74, 63 percent reported some kind of institutional research, but only 15 percent reported that their colleges routinely based important decisions on the results of this research. The most popular areas of research were students, student services, and institutional operations. Other…

British universities are following some American techniques and devising their own for measuring faculty workload. (Editor)

Discusses the Office of Science and Technology, the Office of Management and Budget, and Research Applied to National Needs of the National Science Foundation and their roles in determining policy during the period of steady-state in science. (PG)