The role of institutional research in college management

Abstract

Institutional research is well established in postsecondary institutions in the USA as an effective tool for provision of accurate, reliable data to support management decision making. Institutional research offices are much less prevalent in such institutions in the UK however, particularly in colleges. The purpose of this paper is to outline the principal roles and functions of an institutional research office, briefly discuss relevant staffing issues (including important qualifications), and suggest some practical considerations regarding the role of institutional research in college management.     

中共一大至三大时期中央出版组织机构考释

上海时期我党的中央出版组织机构尚不健全,在中共一大至二大时期,中共中央的出版领导机构职权直接由中央执行委员会或中央局代为行使,其具体事务性工作由分管宣传工作的业务机构负责处理。中共三大以后成立的中央教育宣传委员会是我党历史上最早的中央出版组织机构。中央机关报编辑委员会是中央设立的第一个党报领导机构。中共中央出版部是我党历史上出版组织机构职能与设置最为健全的机构,也是一个真正完整意义的中央出版组织机构。     

A learning foundation

This article suggests that many of the problems afflicting modern educational systems may best be characterized as discontinuities of age, class, race, discipline and organisation. On the basis of this diagnosis, the essay suggests an alternative educational institution — the Learning Foundation — as a model for reorganising the delivery of educational services in order to provide learning opportunities for all ages and levels of experience at the point of the local neighbourhood but supported by the services of central resources units. The governing structure of the Learning Foundation would vest major power in the local learning groups. It would utilise a new teaching role through the development of “educational organisers”, who would apply community organising techniques to the provision of learning opportunities. The idea of this innovative educational institution is supported by a theory of institutional change which emphasises the role of alternative institutions in the reform of social systems. This suggested institution is offered both as a model for evaluating other institutions and as the first approximation of a plan for implementation.     

Who are we and where are we going?

The first part of this paper introduces a method for identifying the major patterns or trends of an institution. This method rests upon the identification of concrete decisions which are perceived as highly significant by individuals representing various segments of an institution. In the second part of the paper the method is applied to a recently established graduate school and research and development center. Five major institutional patterns which have characterized the development of this institution are identified and discussed: 1) democratization, 2) centralization of decision-making over research and development funds, 3) legitimation of development and implementation activities, 4) growth, and 5) entrenchment.Finally, the relevance of the findings is discussed in reference to all institutions of higher education; institutions which are faced with demands for broader participation on the one hand and increasing accountability on the other.The study upon which this paper is based was funded by the Research and Development Review Board, The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Thanks are also due to Professors John Holland and Michael Skolnik for many valuable suggestions.     

Looking from the inside out: rethinking university history

When Geoffrey Sherington and I set out on our project on the Australian Public University, which culminated in Sydney: The Making of a Public University (2012), we wanted to move away from the emphasis of conventional institutional history on chancellors, vice-chancellors and governing councils in order to explore the university as a social institution. Using the theoretical and methodological approach of social history, we studied how students, academics, researchers, philanthropists along with the university's governing body were all important characters in the creation and development of Australia's first university. This essay explores some of the influences in this approach, especially the relationship between oral history and women's history and the history of administration in the story of educational institutions such as universities, and examines the methodological challenges for historical analysis of bringing together these approaches.     

Teachers' memories of disciplinary control strategies from their own school days

This article provides a vision of school disciplinary strategies as provided by childhood school memories of practicing or unemployed teachers. This narrative approach allows us to understand the school and its daily routines and rituals from an insiders' point of view, drawing upon the double perspective teachers employ when reflecting on their own experience as school children. The results of the study demonstrate a wide range of disciplinary practices coinciding with a Foucauldian disciplinary structure – a system of micro‐penalty governing time, activity, behavior, speech, the body, and sexuality. Analyzing the systemic regulation of bodies in schools can uncover institutional meanings and make them available for questioning, perhaps even negotiation. Recognizing the ways in which teachers' roles are inextricably bound with the disciplinary power relations of their institutions can help alleviate frustration and burnout and help teachers make more informed pedagogical decisions.     

Informed consent,gatekeepers and go‐betweens: negotiating consent in child and youth‐orientated institutions

Gaining informed consent from research participants is widely regarded as central to ethical research practice. This article reports on research which sought to identify contemporary practice in this area amongst researchers working in fields where research participants are often constructed as vulnerable within the research process, and where their potential involvement tends to be mediated by institutional gatekeepers. Drawing on telephone interview and focus group data, the article focuses specifically on the experiences of researchers working with children and young people. It highlights the tensions experienced by many researchers between a personal commitment to an ethical framework which seeks to prioritise the agency and competency of children and young people, and the conditions imposed upon them by working within institutional settings where these principles may be undermined. This research suggests that the consent practices of child‐ and youth‐orientated institutions, however much frowned upon, tend to go largely unchallenged by researchers, to the detriment of the rights of children and young people to opt in and out of research on their own behalf.     

运输业清理挂靠经营的制度经济学分析

以制度变迁理论,对我国道路运输业清理挂靠经营进行了制度经济学分析。认为中央政府主导型制度变迁应考虑不同制度变迁主体的利益关系,地方政府在制度变迁中起重要作用。针对地方政府在制度变迁中的消极行为,提出了相应的政策建议。     

The Role of Institutional Research in Higher Education: Enabling Researchers to Meet New Challenges

Based on a survey of 243 New England colleges and universities, this article is designed to contribute to an understanding of the current and projected roles of institutional research and to discuss the implications of these roles for the education and training of future institutional researchers. Results from this study reveal the strongest relationships between the institution's size and the scope of the institutional research function, the reporting relationship, and the size and the qualifications of the institutional research staff. Multivariate analysis identifies the size of the institutional staff and the qualifications of the institutional director as significant predictors of involvement in planning and policy studies. These data indicate the need to enhance the presence, qualifications, and level of activity of institutional researchers in order to enhance the contribution to institutional decision making particularly among small institutions. Recommendations are offered to achieve these goals and prepare the institutional research profession for the challenges confronting higher education now and in the 21st century.     

Sector differences in the role of institutional research in informing decision making and governance in higher education

The intent of the authors in preparing this paper is to compare and contrast the roles of Institutional Research in informing decision making and governance in higher education. Using a case study format the authors will provide an example of a research project conducted within each of the following sectors of United States higher education system: private 4-year not for profit, public major research institutions/private specialized institutions, and a pubic state university system. The first case study from the private sector will feature a mixed methodology study that used data from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and student focus groups to explore student engagement at this institution and inform faculty development. The second case study will compare the use of data for decision making from the standpoint of large public research institutions and private specialized institutions. The third case study from a state university system focuses on recent initiatives in the public sector to inform the public, the institutions, the State, and the federal government using data from institutional research offices, student engagement surveys, and student learning assessments shared through consortia and national associations. These examples will be discussed within the structure of decision making and governance in higher education.     

Governing University Strategy: Perceptions and practice of governance and management roles

Intertwined trends of massification, internationalisation and marketisation constitute and drive change in higher education at all levels. Consequences at the institutional level include: increased competition, adoption of corporate management forms, accrual of power to executive management, and greater emphasis on strategy. As Government policy focuses on accountability and a stronger role for university governing bodies, some new interfaces and tensions between governance and management roles have emerged, particularly in relation to strategic direction‐setting and planning. This article reports on results from an empirical, theory‐building study of role construction in university governance, arguing that cultural norms in conjunction with members’ attributions based on social identity are key influences on members’ perceptions of management and governance roles in relation to strategic processes.     

Higher education,democracy, and development: Implications for Newly Industrialized Countries

Universities are central institutions in modern societies, providing education, research, and communication of scientific information needed by technologically based societies. The focus of this essay is on the role of universities in the emerging economies of the Newly Industrializing Countries (NIC) of the Pacific Rim, although this discussion has relevance for all countries seeking to enter the ranks of the industrialized nations. Universities in the NICs are especially important because they are the windows through which modern science enters society. Academic institutions have also served to provide an important critical voice to emerging democracies because their faculties often contribute to public debates and discussions. The roles of faculty and students in the development of the NICs is also examined in this essay.     

Assessing Differential Prediction of College Grades by Race/Ethnicity with a Multilevel Model

Previous research notes the importance of understanding racial/ethnic differential prediction of college grades across multiple institutions. Institutional variation in selection indices is especially important given some states' laws governing public institutions' admissions decisions. This paper employed multilevel moderated multiple regression to study the variation of selection indices across 30 institutions and the accuracy of selection indices in predicting college grades for students of different racial/ethnic backgrounds. Several benefits of multilevel models for cross-institutional differential prediction studies were described and include: controlling for institutional differences in range restriction, providing reliability estimates of least squares estimates, and adjusting criterion scores for differences in coursework difficulty. The findings from this study provide evidence of institutional variation in selection indices, which challenges current laws aimed at standardizing them. Specifically, there was evidence that the predictor slope coefficients varied across institutions, in addition to the estimates that measured intercept differences for African and Asian American students. Across universities, the results mirrored previous findings: high school grade point average (GPA) differentially predicted grades for African Americans, SAT verbal scores differentially predict grades for Asian Americans, and SAT math scores were better predictors of Asian Americans' grades.     

The Patterns of Change in Higher Education Institutions: The context of the changing quality assurance mechanisms in England,Japan, and New York State

The purpose of the study is to identify the patterns of change in higher education institutions. It examines the contexts of the changing quality assurance mechanisms used by the different types of higher education institutions in England, Japan, and New York State between 2001 and 2007. The paper argues that there were no clear patterns of institutional change in terms of speed, intensity, extensiveness, momentum, trajectory, and consequence between centralized and decentralized institutions and public and private institutions. The study suggests three points for explanation why institutional types do not shape certain patterns of institutional change. The first point is that institutional change heavily relies on agents’ interactions. The second point is that the ideas of centralized or decentralized and private or public per se are becoming ambiguous in the market or market-like systems. The third point is that the relationship between the central authorities and the institutions is far more significant than the types of institutions in the formation of particular patterns of institutional change.

     

美国公立高校董事会的法律地位述评

董事会是美国高校的法定代表机关.按照美国公立高校或高校系统董事会的法律地位,可以将它们分为具有宪法权力的公立高校或高校系统董事会与具有普通法规权力的公立高校或高校系统董事会两种类型,前者享有较大的自治权,后者则受到较多的法律法规和立法机关等公共制度组织的规制.通常情况下,由宪法对公立高校或高校系统董事会进行规制比由普通法规进行规制具有更大的效率优势.     

Distance administration: Multiple perspectives on multi-site institutions

It is becoming increasingly important to understand multi-campus arrangements in the rapidly changing higher education environment. Some attention has been given to the academic perspectives of such arrangements; however, there is limited published work relating to administrative and professional services. Different approaches are evident and although the organisational structure in any particular context will be determined by a host of complex and changing factors, it is important that careful consideration is given to the viewpoint of administrators who work day to day distant from the main institutional centre. This paper focuses on the perspectives of administrators within multi-campus institutions, emphasising the viewpoint of those working at sites that are not the main institutional administrative centre. It considers organisational structure and specific issues that might affect staff. Potential positives and negatives for individuals and institutions are discussed and key factors for consideration are emphasised.     

Unfreezing higher education institutions? Understanding the introduction of quality management in teaching and learning in Germany

Quality management (QM) in teaching and learning has strongly “infected” the higher education sector and spread around the world. It has almost everywhere become an integral part of higher education reforms. While existing research on QM mainly focuses on the national level from a macro-perspective, its introduction at the institutional level is only rarely analyzed. The present article addresses this research gap. Coming from the perspective of organization studies, it examines the factors that were crucial for the introduction of QM at higher education institutions in Germany. As the introduction of QM can be considered to be a process of organizational change, the article refers to Kurt Lewin’s seminal concept of “unfreezing” organizations as a theoretical starting point. Methodologically, a mixed methods approach is applied by combining qualitative data derived from interviews with institutional quality managers and quantitative data gathered from a nationwide survey. The results show that the introduction of QM is initiated by either internal or external processes. Furthermore, some institutions follow a rather voluntary approach of unfreezing, while others show modes of forced unfreezing. Consequently, the way how QM was introduced has important implications for its implementation.     

Developing a sense of belonging in the classroom: community college students taking courses on a four-year college campus

In 2005, Louisiana implemented the Master Plan for Public Postsecondary Education: 2001 (Board of Regents, State of Louisiana, 2001) to restructure its higher education system in an effort to provide its citizens with high quality postsecondary educational choices. This restructuring forced its two-year and four-year institutions to redesign their developmental education programs. Subsequently, several two-year institutions partnered with four-year institutions to offer developmental courses on the four-year college campuses. However, little is known about the experiences of the two-year students in these settings, especially as they relate to classroom experiences. Thus, this phenomenological study explored the academic-social experiences of 20 students enrolled at the two-year college and taking classes at a four-year institution. The study was done in hopes of garnering a better understanding of factors that impact integration and persistence. This article focuses on how the students developed a sense of belonging in the classroom, and it makes connections as to how these students’ experiences may impact integration and persistence and/or transferability to four-year institutions. Additionally, recommendations for research and practice are presented.     

Individual freedom and institutional frameworks in development

In this article I explore Amartya Sen’s contention that individual freedom represents both the objective of development and the means through which development is to take place. Examining the conceptualisation of freedom central to Sen’s capability approach, I distinguish between two notions of freedom, autonomy and agency, where the former describes the freedom derivative of institutional frameworks and the latter the capacity to induce institutional change. Drawing on the economist Douglass North’s theorisation of how institutions develop over time, I attempt to show that education can serve as a privileged institutional space in which to challenge the constraints that determine individual action.     

Diversifying the faculty across gender lines: Do trustees and administrators matter?

Our paper focuses on the role that the gender composition of the leaders of American colleges and universities - trustees, presidents, and provosts - play in influencing the rate at which academic institutions diversify their faculty across gender lines. Our analyses make use of institutional level panel data that we have collected for a large sample of American academic institutions.