Understanding one's competitive stance in a globally competitive environment provides the requisite awareness to maintain both competitive edge and institutional responsiveness. In this chapter, three case studies are presented to provide examples of ways in which strategic scanning can enhance the academic program development process and how…

This chapter describes a framework to guide collaboration between institutional research and other campus offices. Three examples are then provided to illustrate how the framework was applied successfully to actual projects.

This chapter is a case study of one institution's effort to institutionalize a process through which student development is promoted through active engagement with the community.

Benchmarking, when done properly, offers a lot of promise for higher education units that want to improve how they do business. It is clear that much is known, but still more needs to be learned before it reaches its full potential as a useful tool. Readers of this issue of "New Directions for Institutional Research" have been treated to useful…

This chapter introduces the concept of benchmarking and how higher education institutions began to use benchmarking for a variety of purposes. Here, benchmarking is defined as a strategic and structured approach whereby an organization compares aspects of its processes and/or outcomes to those of another organization or set of organizations to…

The influence of emotions in the workplace rarely has been examined within the context of higher education (Neumann, 2006; Smith and Witt, 1993). Through a qualitative approach, the purpose of this chapter is to offer a perspective of faculty work that examines the role that emotions play in the academic life of 15 underrepresented faculty members…

The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the extent to which students' retrospective self-reported gains from high school are associated with college self-reported gains. As such, the chapter offers an empirical test of how accounting for one's predisposition to report educational impact changes estimates of the effects of college experiences…

In late 2002 the Office of Institutional Research (OIR) at Purdue University began to seriously consider building a Web-based reporting system. Purdue had launched its first strategic plan the previous year and was under the leadership of a very data-driven president; unit-level (colleges, schools, administrative areas, departments, majors) data…

There is almost nothing more frustrating to an institutional researcher than seeing university leaders ignore data. The case study in this article examines how an institutional research office was able to put data to work in enrollment services and produce record-setting numbers of applications, admissions, and confirmations within a nine-month…

Assessing student attainment in the major field of study is increasingly important to employers and accrediting bodies alike. Construction and manufacturing firms do not like engineers who design faulty bridges and airplanes. Marketing firms want to hire students who understand the difference between a niche market and a global market. School…

The path from environmental regulation to sustainable institutions has not been a smooth one. By the 1960s, it was clear that the environment was in trouble, with severe air and water pollution, the casual disposal of toxic waste, mountains of garbage, and the loss of many species of plants and animals. The response was a series of restrictive…

Presents the elements, components, and processes involved in setting and maintaining Web portals. Uses Santa Barbara City College as a case study of a portal implementation with the purpose of supporting knowledge management; underscores the role played and benefits gained by institutional research and the college as a result. (EV)

As a tour de force, data mining is likely to gain wider use in the next few years. To facilitate this transition, we make several recommendations addressed to both institutional research professionals and the Association of Institutional Research.

This paper describes how various formal planning approaches were developed and applied at Pennsylvania State University. Phases (horizontal reduction, vertical reallocation, strategic planning, and strategic management) are identified as are principles including planning for change on the margins and continuity, providing for feedback, and…

Four different higher education case studies are offered as contexts for exploring the implications of the draft code of ethics prepared by the Committee on Standards and Ethics of the Association for Institutional Research and of the strategies for ethical decision making. (MSE)