In this article, the author discusses how universities and the academics who work in them understand the relationship between teaching and research. In several countries, acknowledgement of the need to link teaching and research has led to the development of institutional strategies to achieve this goal. In South Africa, the linking of teaching…

The conversation in higher education has shifted, moving from a focus on what students know to a focus on whether they know how to think and, more importantly, toward the goal of providing skills needed for living and working in the twenty-first century. In this article, the authors present national evidence regarding the impact of intentional…

Institutional research in UK higher education is rarely consolidated into a central office function. This is in marked comparison to the position of IR in the USA where most universities accord it a high status which is absent from the UK context. The collection, analysis and interpretation of data in the USA appears, on the whole, more systematic…

Enrollment in for-profit colleges, while still a relatively small share of the higher-education market, has grown more than tenfold over the past decade. For-profit education companies are now in high demand among venture capitalists and investment bankers, and the industry is one of the rare ones that is faring well in this economy. But while…

The varied roles and scope of the field of institutional research (IR) make any overview of this administrative function difficult. In the USA, colleges and universities may have a large, well-defined administrative unit performing data tasks to support decision-making, or they may have only a part-time individual who coordinates basic reporting…

Institutional research (IR) has a variety of definitions. International societies, such as the US-based Association for Institutional Research (AIR), stress not so much the topics of research, but the outcomes: "improved understanding, planning, management, and operation of postsecondary educational institutions and agencies";…

When John B. Simpson, president of the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo, compares the campus over which he presides to its public-university peers, the contrast can be unflattering. Buildings and laboratories need upgrading. Richer, more prestigious institutions have a leg up in attracting renowned scholars and big-ticket federal…

Effective marketing requires more than a sleek new logo. This article presents excerpts of an online discussion on the dos and don'ts of college marketing with Mary R. Stagaman, associate vice president for external relations at the University of Cincinnati. In this discussion, she noted that good research and faculty buy-in are the two keys to…

In this chapter, the author contemplates the future of accreditation in the changing landscape of higher education in the United States. He presents a set of proposals for how accreditation can regain the confidence of college leaders and public policymakers. He begins with the assumption that changes in accreditation--some significant in their…

Economics provides fertile ground, both theoretical and empirical, for institutional researchers interested in higher education costs. (Contains 1 figure.)

This chapter demonstrates how institutional researchers at institutions of higher education can use economic theory for enrollment management. (Contains 4 figures.)

Institutional researchers need to be aware of the theoretical and normative assumptions they hold regarding the character of institutional behavior. Many people's concepts about the nature of institutional "intelligence,""resources,""goals," and "problems" appear faulty based on contemporary organizational theory and may lead to misdiagnosing…

Considering accountability, affordability, and access through the experiences in Chile, East Asia, Australia, Croatia, and the United States offers a clear reminder that trends and issues in higher education are often more similar across national contexts than they are distinct. Across higher education, institutions and systems are responding to…

To properly evaluate the financial contributions of each revenue source, institutional researchers must use key economic concepts in their work. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

Presents a model of institutional research as comprising three tiers of organizational intelligence: (1) technical/analytical intelligence, (2) issues intelligence, and (3) contextual intelligence. The model suggests that institutional researchers need different kinds of knowledge and skills to fulfill their many roles and tasks. (DB)