Indiana's economy needs a skilled talent pipeline, which requires students to pursue and complete degrees or credentials that are affordable, high-quality and relevant to students' future careers and the state's economy. It starts with ensuring students have what they need to get their foot in the door. But right now, fewer students are choosing a…

Despite evidence suggesting that standardized tests are an imperfect measure of academic readiness, many community colleges across the country rely on them alone to determine student course placement. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced campuses to transition to remote operations in spring 2020, proctoring in-person placement tests became…

In Indiana, about 25 percent of students who enter college for the first time at an Indiana public institution transfer to a different campus or institution at least once within six years--a mobility pattern that underscores the complexity of postsecondary pathways and the importance of better understanding the role transfer plays in helping…

Many states are passing "free" college plans, and policymakers at both the state and federal level continue to debate the merits of national "free college" or "debt-free college" proposals, also known as Promise programs. Both federal and state "free" college proposals are geared toward a policy objective of…

This report details findings from focus groups with college students across Indiana. All of these students were planning to transfer or had transferred from the state community college system, Ivy Tech, to a school in the Indiana University system. We wanted to find out what these students had to say about their experiences preparing for and…

This brief explores three examples of state policies designed to help students and families cope with rising tuition costs at four-year institutions: the Wisconsin Covenant, the Georgia HOPE Scholarship Program, and the Indiana Twenty-first Century Scholars Program. Although the authors acknowledge the important role two-year colleges play in…

This document presents the State of Indiana Commission for Higher Education's 1998-99 academic year Student Information System (SIS) Instructions report, which provides information about the codes used in the SIS. The purpose of the SIS is to provide comparable, accurate enrollment and financial aid information in a uniform manner and on a timely…

This report includes descriptions of the following Indiana public institutions: Indiana University, Purdue University, Ball State University, Indiana State University, University of Southern Indiana, Vincennes University, and Ivy Tech State College. For each institution, the following information is available: mission, enrollment breakdown, cost…

The report presents the proposed institutional performance objectives each of Indiana's public institutions of higher education for 1989-91. Performance objectives are presented for Indiana University, Purdue University, Indiana State University, University of Southern Indiana, Ball State University, Vincennes University, and Indiana Vocational…

The 1989-91 biennial budget recommendations for Indiana institutions of higher education are presented in three parts: (1) an overview; (2) a review in detail; and (3) a section of supporting documentation. Part I includes discussions about the demographic changes in the workforce of Indiana, the relationship of education to productivity, and…

The report summarizes state-level changes in black student enrollment that occurred between 1978-79 and 1987-88 and discusses campus-level changes since the low point of black enrollment in 1984-85. It concludes that, using any of several measures of college participation and setting aside the issue of student migration, Indiana higher education…

This 1994-95 Postsecondary Education Financing Study, better known as the "How Students Pay" study, is the latest in an ongoing series of efforts to learn more about students attending Indiana colleges who are served by federal, state, and institutional/private financial aid programs. The study begins with a description of student costs…

This follow-up report addresses three broad aspects of student transfer: (1) transfer between Indiana public college and university campuses; (2) transfer across degree-objective levels; and (3) completion rates and transfer between major fields of study. Of all pre-degree transfers, most (40%) occur between the first and the second year of…

This paper examines what public colleges are doing to improve the retention of students, and provides a synopsis of 12 examples of "best practices" in Indiana and 3 from other states. The commission also presents 11 observations, each accompanied by one or more possible strategies that might improve student retention. The observations…

Three forms of coordination (a coordinating council for institutions having separate boards, a board of regents for institutions retaining separate boards, and a single board for a system of universities) in Ohio, Wisconsin, and Indiana are examined to determine the impact of coordination on institutional autonomy. (MLW)