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Institutional research offices, at the campus and system levels, are facing increased pressure, but are not generally being provided with the resources they need, according to a new study by the National Association of System Heads. The report notes that IR offices were once viewed by many as assuring compliance with various regulations about submission of data. Increasingly, however, these offices are central to institutional and state efforts to track student completion, performance and other education-related metrics.
But the report expresses fears that these offices aren't receiving the full support (financial and otherwise) that they need. The field is "at best unevenly positioned to support change," the report says. Data that could be meaningful are in many cases not collected or not collected in ways that promote analysis, it adds. The overall ability of IR offices to look at data in ways appropriate to the needs of higher education is "nascent at best," the report says.
