Institutional research and its relevance to the performance of higher education institutions

Abstract

Institutions outside the US have been relatively slow to develop a formally constituted institutional research capacity (rather than undertaking research into institutional functioning as the need is perceived), perhaps because of differences in the way that higher education is organised in their countries. Some examples of engagements in UK higher education that partially satisfy the conditions of institutional research as a corporate endeavour lead, via a consideration of various perspectives on the topic, towards an argument that, in a period of increased competition in higher education, institutional research will be critical to the continuing success of some institutions.

Notes

* Correspondence: Mantz Yorke, Centre for Higher Education Development, Liverpool John Moores University, I. M. Marsh Campus, Barkhill Road, Liverpool, L17 6BD, UK; email: [email protected]

As higher education has become more competitive, institutions at the upper end of the reputational range have sought to maintain (and enhance) their positional advantage through their commitments to research and to the enrolment of the most talented students.

A study undertaken in 1998 of students who had entered with two years' experience in a further education college came up with a similar finding.

See Johnston (2003) and the Student Retention Project website (⟨www.napier.ac.uk/qes/studentretentionproject/SRPhome.asp⟩) for accounts.

Other variables, such as entry qualifications, ethnicity and disability, were not available for the analyses, but are likely to be available for other intra‐institutional analyses.

Strictly, pedagogic practice should subsume assessment, but many see these activities as contiguous rather than as integrated.

Volkwein is in fact careful to point out that he draws the distinctions on the grounds of predominance, rather than in absolute terms.

The summative aspect is more important for an institution than Volkwein's account seems to suggest.

The same applies to some policy‐related research for sponsors such as governments and their agencies, which can create difficulties for academics commissioned to undertake the work. See also Teichler (2003: 48ff).

However, these payments will be abated for poorer students.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mantz Yorke *

* Correspondence: Mantz Yorke, Centre for Higher Education Development, Liverpool John Moores University, I. M. Marsh Campus, Barkhill Road, Liverpool, L17 6BD, UK; email: [email protected]