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";…

Colleges and universities in the United States are being challenged to assess student outcomes and the quality of programs and services. One of the more widely used sources of evidence is student engagement as measured by a cluster of student engagement surveys administered by the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University. They…

Assessment information should be actionable in that findings must be used to improve the student experience and educational effectiveness. Assessment is a worthwhile undertaking when campuses generate meaningful data, thoroughly consider and discuss evidence-based improvement initiatives, and ultimately use results to improve educational…

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…

College student self-reported gains are used frequently in institutional research and in general research on college outcomes (Gonyea, 2005). These self-report measures serve not only to identify experiences and programs associated with student growth but also to draw comparisons across colleges and universities. The vast majority of institutions…

This article is based on a web-search commissioned by an international charity to review the work of international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) and charities which promote and support early childhood education and care (ECEC) in the global South. The article examines examples of such initiatives. It is suggested that there is…

Immediately after the election of a person of color to the presidency, the idea of being "postracial" seeped into the national media, essentially claiming that racism was over. According to this author, however, the United States is far from a "postracial" society. He contends that systemic racism continues to inequitably stratify society in favor…

This dissertation study chronicles the creation of a computer-based, asynchronously delivered diversity training course for a state agency. The course format enabled efficient delivery of a mandatory curriculum to the Massachusetts Department of State Police workforce. However, the asynchronous format posed a challenge to achieving the learning…

Purpose: This study presents institutional research and aims to explore the underlying factors that contribute to hospitality management students' satisfaction and perceptions of service quality at a higher education college in Ireland. Research focusing on hospitality and leisure management education argues for greater cognisance of the relevance…

Charters represent an expansion of public school choice, offering free, publicly funded educational alternatives to traditional public schools. One relatively unexplored research question concerning charter schools asks whether charter schools are more efficient suppliers of educational services than are traditional public schools. The potential…

As its major contribution to the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UN DESD, 2005-2014), the United Nations University (UNU) has promoted the establishment of Regional Centres of Expertise on education for sustainable development (RCEs) and their net-working to build innovative multistakeholder platforms for ESD…

This chapter describes the system office for community college institutional research for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. What makes this System Offices for Community College Institutional Research (SOCCIR) somewhat different from the others reviewed in this volume is that the Minnesota system IR office has responsibilities for both…

In recent years, colleges and universities have faced a new challenge. While there has been a movement underway on college campuses to increase the safety of a wide range of university constituents through criminal background checks (CBCs), in most cases this movement has failed to include CBCs of foreign faculty and student populations. The…

Scholars have theorized and examined women's underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields for well over thirty years. However, much of this research has paid little attention to issues of racial and ethnic diversity among women, suggesting that all women have the same experiences in STEM. Women of color…

Since its creation in 1958, the European Social Fund (ESF) has played a major role in supporting the development of vocational training in the Member States. However, compared to other, more recently launched, EU programmes and initiatives in the area of education and training, the ESF has not made a significant contribution to the debate about…