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Institutional Research and Themes, North America

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Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions

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Synonyms

Decision support; Institutional analysis

Definition

Institutional research refers to the organized activities performed by professional and academic staff to inform planning and decision-making within postsecondary (higher education and tertiary) institutions. The term broadly refers to the provision of decision-support information in the postsecondary sector regardless of its level of organization or formality (Saupe 1990), and to the application of research and analysis to the practice of administering postsecondary institutions, regardless of whether it is applied to decision-making (Terenzini 1999). However, in this entry we consider specifically the organized activity of institutional research as it is practiced by staff who are employed by postsecondary institutions, typically (but not always) in academic and administrative support units to provide other academic and administrative staff with decision support and related analytic information. The qualifier, “typically”...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Postsecondary Research, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Victor M. H. Borden

  2. Institutional Research, Planning & Effectiveness, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA

    Braden J. Hosch

Authors
  1. Victor M. H. Borden
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  2. Braden J. Hosch
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Victor M. H. Borden .

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Education, University of Oslo, Sem Selandsvei 7, 0317, Oslo, Norway

    Bjørn Stensaker

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Borden, V.M.H., Hosch, B.J. (2018). Institutional Research and Themes, North America. In: Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_586-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_586-2

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  • Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9553-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9553-1

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Institutional Research and Themes, North America
    Published:
    09 February 2018

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_586-2

  2. Original

    Institutional Research and Themes, North America
    Published:
    06 October 2017

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_586-1

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