When it comes to hard data about what they do, policy makers and educators in the humanities have been mostly left out in the cold, forced to rely on isolated statistics that do not give an overview of the field. That changed this month, as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences unveiled the prototype of its long-awaited Humanities Indicators…

The Office of Planning and Institutional Research (OPAIR), at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus was asked to undertake an analysis of student throughput rates as part of a University-wide initiative involving the three campuses. Each Campus was provided with a template and guidelines for reporting the data. The exercise was intended…

The world of policymaking on the campuses of colleges and universities is messy, ambiguous, and contested. In this complex environment, which Kingdon (2003) has aptly called a "policy soup," the role of institutional research is often not only to provide answers to existing policy questions but to produce information to help transform…

Producing analyses that are accurate, timely, and simple is a constant challenge for institutional researchers. The stakes are high: when the analysis is incomplete, arrives too late, does not adequately address the question, or is simply too much to comprehend, decision makers fall back on anecdotal thinking or gut-level reactions that can lead…

This document is intended for leaders and decision makers who work with community colleges at the classroom, college, and system level. Readers will find an overview of the purpose, activities, findings, and recommendations from a three-year project involving 11 California community colleges, undertaken as a partnership between The Carnegie…

This article focuses on understanding successful Latina/o college student retention at 4-year institutions. Deficit models fail to consider how Latina/o students use different forms of capital (i.e., social, cultural, economic, and human) in earning a degree. Using data from the UCLA's Cooperative Institutional Research Program, factors associated…

In 2001, the grant and research coordinator of the Community College System of New Hampshire (CCSNH) was inspired to create an informal collaborative with representatives from other organizations who had similar interests in collecting and sharing data that related to postsecondary education aspirations and participation. Representatives were…

This qualitative study represents perceptions of students regarding campus environment and campus life at University College of the Fraser Valley (UCFV), a public four-year university-college located in British Columbia, Canada. Employing a unique methodology, referred to as reflexive photography, student participants were asked to photograph and…

Assessment and accountability are embedded in the context in which most colleges and universities operate. In the current climate, one is deeply entwined with the other. Originally, assessment in higher education meant assessing students. The broader appeal of the concept quickly claimed the attention of a multitude of constituents within the…

The goal of the Pathways to College Network is to advance college access and success for underserved students, including those who are the first in their families to go to college, low-income students, underrepresented minorities, and students with disabilities. All of the Pathways work is grounded in data and research. Through a synthesis of…

This study has two main objectives: first, to assess the overall capacity of the Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES) of Nepal, its staff and constituent bodies in relation to their mandates, roles and responsibilities; second, to guide the conceptualization and preparation of a human resource development plan (HRDP) for MOES to support the…