IPEDS is the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. The U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) conducts a series of surveys each year to gather vital statistics about the multidimensional functions and programs of the nation's post-secondary institutions. These institutions include those who participate in the federal student financial aid programs. These data include enrollments, program completions, graduation rates, faculty and staff, institutional costs, and student financial aid. This information is available through the IPEDS webpage to students and parents, and it may be used by researchers to gather contextual information about a particular institution (IPEDS website).
The data provided about my institution may be used to provide contextual information about my institution in the following areas:
- Institutional Characteristics
- Student Charges
- Student Financial Aid
- Net Price
- Enrollment
- Retention and Graduation
- Completions
- Human Resources
- Fiance
With regard to research, IPEDS is an excellent place to start in describing the physical location of the institution, Title IX participation, calendar system, program level, and Carnegie Classification. IPEDS would also be useful in making an argument for an intervention in key areas such as enrollment, retention and graduation, and completions. For instance, I may want to research how we might improve male enrollments. I could provide a graphical depiction of the problem using the data. Additionally, I can provide enrollment data specific to males from other institutions for comparison. I may also want to discuss how we need to improve the completion rates of African American students. To depict the problem, I could draw from these data to show how African American student completion rates compare to other student populations. I may also review the retention rates from other institutions to illustrate how widespread the problem is and/or identify schools that may have stronger retention rates with this population.
IPEDS is also useful in describing our financial contributions to my institution. Specifically, after reviewing the data, I can determine that we are a state assisted institution as state appropriations account for 28% of the core revenues. Meanwhile, our primary sources of revenue are tuition and fees government grants and contracts. This section also depicts the fiscal priorities of my institution. As expected, instruction is our largest expense. I work in student services. This area receives less support in comparison to other ares. Research receives no financial support from the institution. We are not a research institution. Therefore, this is understandable. Overall, this a great resource for developing a research problem and writing the first chapter of a research dissertation. It is also useful for data comparisons with other institutions.
IPEDS. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/Home/AboutIPEDS.
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