This paper provides an overview of research that I have conducted during my career using data sets collected by offices of institutional research. Many of the examples discussed in the paper deal with graduate education. The paper illustrates how valuable the data collection efforts by these offices are to academic researchers interested in…

Given the growing need to look across national borders in order to be prepared for global challenges confronting higher education in the coming decades, it can be expected that institutional administrators in the U.S. and other western countries will need information on the quality and efficiency of their activities, including an international…

This document is an extensive annotated bibliography of institutional research, 1972-73. Contents cover goals of higher education, community development goals, spatial environments of higher education, the university, the community college, institutions of higher education within the civil government, curriculum and instruction, research,…

While department and program quality rankings could be based on such factors as how well the faculty teach, advise students, and perform service roles, in practice most rankings measuring achievement in graduate departments have been based on faculty research performance of various kinds. (Author/MSE)

A survey of higher education programs found that nine of the programs offer an area of concentration in institutional research and 17 programs have an institutional research core course. These programs are identified and the content of the curriculum is described. Planning topics received the most emphasis in courses. (Author/MLW)

The relationship between some facets of organizational climate (perceived power structure, assessment of rewards, and perceived organizational goals) in university departments and faculty attitudes toward various aspects of unionization is examined. Policy implications for faculty and administration are discussed. (Author/LBH)

A set of weighting factors on student credit hour production by discipline was developed so that instructional productivity could be equitably compared across disparate disciplines and within disciplines. The new statistical methodology was applied to 3 years of teaching load data from 21 major public universities (the Southern University Group…

A study was conducted to determine how research by faculty members is responsive to uncertainty or inadequacy in the environment. The interrelationships among four variables were studied: perceived environmental uncertainty, complexity, boundary spanning activity, and environmental adequacy. It was proposed that the nature of the…

A program at Ohio State University that allows graduate students to develop self-designed interdisciplinary degree programs is described (the "One-of-a-Kind" program). An evaluation of the program was undertaken by surveying: 6 current students and 15 graduates of the program since its inception in 1972; faculty members who served as…

The status of women faculty at West Chester State College, Pennsylvania in 1979-1980 was examined. The data permit longitudinal comparisons concerning: the distribution of full-time professional staff by rank, division, and sex as related to the national percentages; the number of student majors and degrees conferred by faculty, school,…

Equity, quality, and cost in higher education is examined as it exists in Australia. The first chapter provides a broad overview, both current and historical, of the complex structure of higher education in Australia and identifies issues and concerns. Chapter 2 examines enrollment trends in different fields of study. The third chapter looks at…

The nature of a dual labor market in higher education consisting of positions that may lead to tenure and those that do not, is identified. Evidence of recent increases in the proportion of non-tenure track positions is described, this development is interpreted, and implications for higher education are discussed. The paper proceeds in three…

The Union for Experimenting Colleges and Universities (UECU) was developed as an alternative form of postsecondary education, fostering the development of university without walls programs at a number of institutions and initiating its own undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Its commitment is to personalized, self-directed, lifelong…

This report presents data and findings from a 5-year follow-up study to an earlier 16-year (1974-1989) longitudinal study of trends in the hiring and promotion of female faculty within the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. The two studies have produced an information base on full-time faculty in the state system from 1974-75 through…

This study uses iterative solution techniques to determine empirically optimal standards for student to faculty ratios by discipline and student level for a group of 11 public, research universities, all of whom were members of the Association of American Universities. One set of benchmark standards was based on four-variable solutions within…