Institutional research in a European context: a forward look

Abstract

The article addresses the opportunities and drawbacks of institutional research as a particular form of higher education research in Europe and its relationship to institutional-level policymaking. Through emphasis on institutional research on student matters, and student experience and engagement in particular, we offer suggestions for future directions of institutional research arguing in favour of methodological pluralism and especially ‘interpretivist turn’ by a way of application of critical-reflexive approaches. Further, the article makes a case for student engagement in institutional research to aid relevance, legitimacy and accountability of this type of research.

Keywords:

• institutional research
• quality assurance
• student affairs
• methodological pluralism
• ethnography
• critical-reflexive approaches
• student engagement
• Europe

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Janja Komljenovič, Head of Unit for quality, analysis and reporting at University of Ljubljana for her input to the article.

Notes

1. The term institutional research is most widely used in the US. In Europe terminology varies between countries.

2. Similar situation was on the national level where basic statistical data on higher education systems has been collected but often with several problems associated with inconsistent methodologies across different government bodies collecting statistical data on various aspects of higher education and research (Tavenas 2003). Problems were also in varying capacities and also willingness (or motivation) of higher education institutions to generate statistical data on institutional performance.