Institutional researchers' expanding roles: Policy, planning, program evaluation, assessment, and new research methodologies

Abstract

Anne Marie DelaneyInstitutional researchers can best serve higher education in the twenty-first century by enhancing their current roles and adopting new roles to exert greater influence on decision making. This chapter explores how they can achieve this by expanding roles in policy development, strategic planning, assessment, accreditation, program evaluation, and academic-focused research studies. The chapter also proposes new roles for institutional researchers-designing new programs, serving as higher education industry knowledge analysts, and functioning as knowledge brokers. The crucial role of administrators, researcher qualifications required for success, and implications for institutional research offices are also discussed. Expanded Roles in Current Areas of Institutional ResearchInstitutional researchers can enhance their effectiveness in policy development and strategic planning by assuming new roles, developing creative strategies, and increasing their knowledge of an institution's internal culture and external environment. To effectively influence policy, institutional researchers need to be capable policy analysts, competent debaters, and

Institutional Research and Academic Planning in the Context of Higher Education Steering Instruments

“…The IR person is also responsible for DHET and [other] reporting and registrations on the National Learner Data Base. [Private Institution] Saupe (1990) and Delaney (2009) refer to IR in terms of policy development. Only one university in our survey, however, highlighted the policy development aspect of IR.…”

“…Secondly, it indicates a need for some academic staff to have a better appreciation of the roles of professional/ support staff. Scholarly research could position institutional researchers in terms of what Delaney (2009) regards as "knowledge analysts" and "knowledge brokers". The use of scholarly research that focuses on the university context and feeds into decision-making to inform improvement is thus emerging, and is part of the shift from a focus on merely reporting, to the application of data to support decision making for academic programme planning.…”

Co‐Curricular Outcomes Assessment and Accreditation

“…Institutional researchers typically have the institutional awareness, campus connections, knowledge of data sources, and technical expertise to gather and interpret data that can be used to assess co‐curricular learning outcomes (Brittingham et al., ; Delaney, ; Volkwein, ). Student affairs educators have a strong familiarity with the co‐curricular activities taking place on campus because they develop and facilitate many of these activities and frequently coordinate with faculty members who may also have responsibility for such programs.…”

“…Student affairs leaders play an important role in ensuring a successful accreditation review for their institutions and have a professional responsibility to participate actively in such efforts (Allen & Elkins, ; Bayless, ; Delaney, ). The senior student affairs officer should also be a member of the self‐study steering committee and may even lead the efforts of assessing co‐curricular learning.…”

Summary and Implications

“…Many have written about how assessment can be used, such as to assess institutional effectiveness (Volkwein, ), student learning within an academic program (Sweatman, ; Volkwein, ), and to assess the needs of particular student groups (e.g., first‐year students; Keup & Kilgo, ). Beyond describing the basics of assessment, in terms of how and why it is useful, others have described the crucial role that institutional researchers play in the realm of assessment as advocates, experts, problem solvers, and liaisons (Delaney, ; Taylor, Hanlon, & Yorke, ).…”