Having access to accurate and reliable data is essential in decision-making. A wealth of data is spread across the University of Delaware (UD). These data include, but are not limited to, financial information, budget information, student enrollment, credit hours taught, and numerous metrics about faculty, staff, and sponsored programs. These data…

The depths of the impact of COVID-19 on nearly every aspect of our personal and professional lives was becoming painfully clear in May and June of 2020. While institutions of higher education had implemented crisis/emergency plans in the immediate onset of the pandemic, and largely extended those efforts into summer terms, the fall 2020 term…

In higher education, the discursive establishment of 'faculty' vs. 'administrator' creates a dualistic, hierarchical structure, informing relationalities between/within ourselves and faculty. As administrators, we found/find ourselves in relational encounters, entanglements of material-discursive bodies, that we were/are a part of producing. In…

The continuing importance of data analytics is not lost on higher education leaders, who face a multitude of challenges, including increasing operating costs, dwindling state support, limits to tuition increases, and increased competition from the for-profit sector. To navigate these challenges, savvy leaders must leverage data to make sound…

In this study I explored the experiences of institutional actors (e.g. administrators, faculty and staff members) responsible for student success efforts at research universities. Through Critical Discourse Analysis of interview transcripts and institutional documents, I traced how neoliberalism and other economic logics propagated through the…

This multiple case-based study investigates the relationship between recruiting agents and the UK universities who act as their principals. The current extensive use of agents in UK higher education may be seen as an indicator of the financial impact made by international students. The study analyses the practice of agent management and explores…

This quantitative study explored the statistical relationship between American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) leadership competencies and data-driven decision making (DDDM) literacy among rural community college leaders in the Midwest. Specifically, the authors examined how AACC community college leadership competencies may predict the…

Vice chancellors of public universities in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region face a myriad of challenges that require research- and data-driven decision-making. This paper presents a decision-making model for college and university leadership - The Two-Way Practitioner-Researcher Loop. This scholarship of practice has the…

This study explored the predictive relationship between leadership competencies and data driven decision making (DDDM) among rural community college leaders. The authors developed and disseminated a survey examining DDDM literacy level, community college leadership competencies, and other related key factors. Utilizing exploratory factor analysis,…

Tarrant County College's Achieving the Dream transformation has not only changed the college but all who engaged in the initiative. In four years, through ATD TCC became a college with one purpose, one goal, and one focus--student success through data informed decision making. From TCC Chancellor Dr. Erma Johnson Hadley to campus administrators,…

There are few higher education leaders today that command more national respect and admiration than Freeman A. Hrabowski III, the outspoken president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Named one of America's Best Leaders by "US News & World Report" and one of "Time's" 100 Most Influential People in the World,…

The contemporary English policy discourse in higher education of "Putting Students at the Heart of the System" has led to an increasing use of managing by performance "smart-data" reinforcing a consumer-led representation of students as "partners" in the "business of learning" within the academy. This…

Data-driven decision making, popularized in the 1980s and 1990s, is evolving into a vastly more sophisticated concept known as big data that relies on software approaches generally referred to as analytics. Big data and analytics for instructional applications are in their infancy and will take a few years to mature, although their presence is…

Recent leadership failures at a couple of major public universities suggest that we should revisit the question of how colleges and universities should be governed. This article presents the authors' views on the leadership roles of trustees, presidents, and faculty. They describe how those roles can be effectively played and point out some of the…

The authors describe the University of Central Florida's top-down/bottom-up action analytics approach to using data to inform decision-making at the University of Central Florida. The top-down approach utilizes information about programs, modalities, and college implementation of Web initiatives. The bottom-up approach continuously monitors…