Association for Institutional Research
Enhancing Knowledge. Expanding Networks.
2008 AIR/NCES Postdoctoral Policy Fellowship Recipient
Degree-Granting Institutions’ Methods for Determining the Number of Transfers for the IPEDS Graduation Rate Survey
Allan Joseph Medwick
AIR/NCES Postdoctoral Fellow
This study examines the different processes that institutional researchers use to calculate the number of transfers for the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Graduation Rate Survey (GRS), with a particular focus on how the process is influenced by institutional mission and data availability. The purpose of the research is to develop a set of recommendations for institutions that will help improve the comparability and quality of the transfer data reported in IPEDS.
Given the increased interest in measures of student outcomes, it seems like an ideal time to examine the processes and data sources institutions use to report the number of transfers on the IPEDS GRS. In the commentary on the final Student Right to Know Act regulations, published in the Federal Register on December 1, 1995, several commentators “suggested that the Secretary encourage institutions to supply additional information to place their graduation rate reports in context, as a way of providing greater comparability and usefulness” (p. 61779). While the Secretary strongly encouraged providing contextual information, it was determined that there was no statutory authority to require institutions to provide it; this study helps provide a representative overview of institutional practices related to transfer.
The initial phase of the study was an online survey of 1,500 institutions (completed in March 2009); the second phase consists of interviews to clarify the results of the initial phase; and, the final phase is a usability study, based on interviews, of the proposed recommendations. Results will be presented at the AIR Forum in June 2009, and later posted to this site.
For more information, please contact Allan Medwick at amedwick@airweb2.org. Allan Medwick is a doctoral candidate in Higher Education Administration at the University of Pennsylvania. His research, which focuses on college student migration, has been presented at meetings of the Association for Institutional Research and the Association of American Geographers. Prior to starting the AIR/NCES Postdoctoral Fellowship, Allan was a Research Analyst in Kean University’s Office of Institutional Research.