Institutional research Its relevance for policy and practice in UK higher education Mantz Yorke

1. Institutional research Its relevance for policy and practice in UK higher education Mantz Yorke Liverpool John Moores University

2. Institutional research “Research leading to improved institutional understanding, planning and operating, and to institutional development.” Vital for any learning organisation, especially In times of turbulence. Serves both single-loop and double-loop learning (Argyris & Schön).

3. Institutional research in the US • A response to the growth in US HE post WW2. • A shift from an emphasis on resourcing to • quality • competition (including rankings or ‘league tables’) • efficiency/effectiveness • demographic change, • increasingly driven by performance measures.

4. Institutional research in the UK • Not undertaken systematically across HE. • Pockets of policy and action-oriented IR activity, • often influenced by external drivers such as • performance indicators • Recruitment (e.g. M Hill at Kingston University) • Access (e.g. M Abramson at Univ of Central Lancashire; • M Doyle at Salford University) • Student satisfaction (e.g. L Harvey at UCE) • Retention (e.g. V Johnston at Napier University) • Reactive, rather than proactive.

5. Some tensions in UK higher education Stability v. Change The move towards diversification of provision - Teaching-only v. research-intensive universities - HE in FE (‘substitutive provision’ via FDs etc.) - Providers from outside traditional HE Funding, especially ‘top-up’ fees Supply v. Demand orientation Competition v. Collaboration (especially regional) Enhancement v. Accountability Innovation, Enterprise, etc.

6. Ideal types(Based on Volkwein, 1999) Audience Internal External (Formative & (Largely Summative) Summative) Role Administrative, Institutional Academic, Professional 1 3 2 4* * Some internal, formative relevance

7. 1 Administrative/Institutional; Internal focus • Strapline: “IR as information provision” • Requires largely technical expertise • Responding to management’s requests • Anticipating management’s requests • Analysing institutional datasets, and reporting • ‘Telling the institution about itself’ • Formative and summative implications

8. 2 Academic/professional; Internal focus • Strapline: “IR as research and evaluation” • Technical, research and possibly policy expertise • Researching in order to generate new information • Evaluating information • Benchmarking against others’ performances • Weighing alternatives • Possibly recommending policy options • Formative and summative implications

9. 3 Administrative/Institutional; External focus • Strapline: “IR as spin doctoring” • Technical expertise and policy awareness • Preparing information for accountability purposes. • Helping the institution to present itself to external • assessors. • - External quality scrutiny • - Bidding for funding • Essentially a summative activity.

10. 4 Academic/professional; Int. & Ext. focus • Strapline: “IR as educational research” • Technical and policy expertise, backed up by • substantial expertise in research & scholarship. • Outputs must meet research standards of rigour. • Providing impartial, evidence to institution… • … and to the wider academic community. • Summative and some formative implications

11. Potential for role conflict Audience Internal External (Formative & (Largely Summative) Summative) Role Info Spin R&Ev EdRes Administrative, Institutional Academic, Professional

12. What is needed? • Recognition of the contribution that IR • wcan make to institutional performance. • A benefit/cost case for systematic IR. • Institutional commitment to be a learning • Worganisation, and hence to exploit the • wpotential of IR. • Better access to sectoral data for • w benchmarking purposes (contrast US IPEDS). • A cadre of institutional researchers primed to • the particular requirements of IR.

13. The transformation of undergraduate learning at IUPUI has been grounded in a culture of evidence in a data-rich environment. Borden and Evenback, 2003 It has also taken time.