In late July of 1972, a consortium of five organizations conducted a conference on the eighth Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS) under the sponsorship of the National Center for Educational Statistics in the Office of Education. The conference had two very broad areas of concern: (1) to consider ways in which HEGIS data may be…

Executing surveys is one of the most common activities of institutional research and one of the least served in institutional research literature. Survey research as practiced in institutional research faces special technical problems and challenges not embraced in much of the general-survey research literature. (Author/MLW)

In designing an institutional advancement survey, it is thought that the researcher must have a clear conception of the survey's purpose. The relationship of research to theory, the nature of the survey, data collection, and analysis and interpretation are discussed. (Author/MLW)

This report describes results of gathering follow-up information from former Coast Community College District (California) students through the use of telephone interviews. The students interviewed were 5% random sample of all students enrolled as of the fourth week of the Fall 1971 semester but who were not enrolled as of the fourth week of the…

A National Science Foundation survey of institutions granting advanced degrees found academic research and development spending increased 12 percent in 1975, but the federal government is contributing less to that total than before. The expenditures by colleges and universities for scientific activities are detailed. (BT)

Describes a study of the duties being performed by institutional researchers in Southern 2-year colleges, revealing that less than half of the 301 colleges that responded to the survey employed an institutional researcher on at least a half-time basis and that many researchers expressed dissatisfaction with their job responsibilities. (DMM)

This report presents findings from a study conducted by the Community College Research Center (CCRC) on how well prepared today's community colleges are in moving toward the greater use of data and research to improve student success. Data for the study were drawn from two major sources: first, an e-mail survey of college administrators…

An analysis of variance approach to estimating reliability is examined. This approach uses an internal-consistency index for estimating the reliability of survey instruments containing ranked items, and is recommended when the relative ranking of item means is of interest to survey researchers. The computation of this index is demonstrated using…

The agencies surveyed influence faculty to improve their instruction through workshops, seminars, courses, newsletters, other publications, and individual consultations. Unfortunately, the agencies view their role as service-oriented and take a passive approach to instructional improvement. (Editor/PG)

A guide to survey research is presented for both novice and experienced researchers. Steps of the survey research process are covered: (1) planning the survey to determine the purpose of the study, collecting background information, designing the sample, and making a time line for completing the project; (2) questionnaire design, including the…

The theme of the 2001 annual conference of the Northeast Association for Institutional Research was Institutional Research: Leadership through Excellence. These proceedings represent the intellectual content and insights shared during the conference. The papers are: (1) The Rocky Road to Graduation: An Academic Career Flow Model for Tracking…

A survey sought information on the administrative factors contributing to high-quality funded research activity in 33 high-ranked but changing research universities. Influential environmental factors, faculty participation, research visibility, and key success strategies were considered. Results were linked to patterns in decline, rise, and…

Problems associated with low response rates to surveys are considered, drawing from the literature on the methodology of survey research. A series of analyses are presented which were designed to examine the efficacy of Astin and Molm's procedure to adjust for nonresponse biases. Data were obtained form the Cooperative Institutional Research…

The background and function of a Student Opinion Survey Program at the University of Kansas are described, and suggestions for the development and implementation of polling programs are offered. At the University of Kansas, the technical expertise of staff and students was tapped to provide a credible survey program. Departments and other offices…

A "formal information inventory" survey method was used to help educate a university campus about outcomes assessment while identifying assessment activities already being undertaken. The survey was sent to 102 individuals identified as being responsible for, or having knowledge of, any assessment activities within a department or area,…