Mission and Scope of Institutional Research & Decision Support

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IR&DS’s mission is to facilitate institutional decision making at Stanford by:

• Providing integrated analysis and research needed by University decision makers
• Facilitating access to data, including providing training and tools
• Publishing reports that provide insight into the performance of the institution.
• Assessing and evaluating Stanford’s academic and academic support programs

IR&DS accesses, utilizes, analyzes, and reports on data from all of the major administrative systems at Stanford, including student, faculty, course, research, and financial data.  IR&DS performs and facilitates complex analyses for both departments and central offices, including collaborating with other universities to provide comparative data, and proactively publishing management reports.

IR&DS’s skills and expertise include:

• Ability to interpret information and provide insight to data through knowledge of higher education and Stanford’s organization and business processes
• Extensive experience with the myriad sources of University data and how to consolidate and present this data in reports and other vehicles most useful to decision makers
• Technical expertise in data gathering and reporting tools
• Analytical capabilities in statistics, survey research, assessment, and data mining
• University-wide perspective on current issues within the context of higher education
• Familiarity with and access to peer data via participation in data sharing consortia

IR&DS is composed of teams that specialize in Decision Support Services, Institutional Research, and Assessment and Program Evaluation.  The Decision Support Services team specializes in the creation of data collections from the major administrative systems at Stanford to aid data consumers in answering complex questions.  The Institutional Research team uses administrative systems’ data and other available resources to provide integrated analysis such as teaching activity reporting, trustee data summaries, and department profiles that include all types of administrative data along with helpful management ratios.  The IR team also provides analytical support for departments wishing to assess their programs through survey research.  The Assessment and Program Evaluation function provides timely, accurate, and thorough reporting on various measures of academic performance, program efficacy, and student outcomes.  Research areas include assessment of graduate and undergraduate student performance, and pedagogical, curricular, and programmatic initiatives.