Data quality has become a pressing issue for many campuses in recent years, as colleges struggle to extract timely, accurate, and consistent information from ever-proliferating institutional data sources in order to meet strategic decision-making and accountability demands. In this mixed methods study, a survey and semi-structured interviews were…

The Association for Institutional Research (AIR) is engaged in a variety of efforts to document the current state of institutional research. In 2012, the Association initiated a critically important effort to identify the tasks involved in the work of institutional research (IR) across all titles and variations represented in its membership. This…

As students are asked to share more of the costs of a post-secondary education, the quality of their overall educational experience and perceived return on investment (ROI) are increasingly important. For prospective students and their parents, what they are told they can expect from the student experience at an institution often makes the most…

This report presents results of a survey of fund raising activities of 181 colleges and universities in North America during 1996-97. The survey was based on standards developed by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). The data are presented in two parts. First, summaries of the reported data, broken down into eight…

A survey conducted to provide general information on instructional costs at universities similar to Montana State is presented in an effort to demonstrate difficulties involved in comparing costs among different universities. A sample of six comparable financial reports from Rocky Mountain area universities were collected. Figures are provided for…