The article addresses the opportunities and drawbacks of institutional research as a particular form of higher education research in Europe and its relationship to institutional-level policymaking. Through emphasis on institutional research on student matters, and student experience and engagement in particular, we offer suggestions for future directions of institutional research arguing in favour of methodological pluralism and especially 'interpretivist turn' by a way of application of critical-reflexive approaches. Further, the article makes a case for student engagement in institutional research to aid relevance, legitimacy and accountability of this type of research.