#28

Title: NCES Seeks Comments on IPEDS Human Resource Surveys

Note: The AIR Higher Education Data Policy Committee recommends that you share this Alert with the institution's IPEDS keyholder, and all other individuals who have responsibility for submitting information to the IPEDS surveys related to faculty and staff (Employees by Assigned Position, Faculty Salaries, and Fall Staff).

Summary

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) seeks comments by February 15, 2005, on a proposal to revise the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) human resource surveys ( http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/trp9.asp). The proposal includes merging the three current components, Employees by Assigned Position (EAP), Salaries (SA), and Fall Staff (S), into one component with three sections to simplify reporting and ensure data consistency and accuracy. The associated instructions and definitions would be revised and clarified, and tenure status would be reinstated in the Salaries section. Institutional keyholders would have one set of edits/error messages for the entire HR component; and the HR data would be locked as one component rather than as 3 individual components as is currently required. The NCES is proposing to implement the new format in the Winter 2005-06 data collection. Any new items would be optional in 2005-06 and mandatory in 2006-07.

Comments or concerns about the proposal should be sent to Susan Broyles at Susan.Broyles@ed.gov by February 15, 2005. Include the following in the email subject line: Human Resources TRP - Proposal Comments.

Current Status

Changes in Organization
The survey items would be reorganized to be more logical in flow; for example, headcount information would be collected before salary intervals. Component sections would be determined by data reported on EAP and cells in the other sections would be populated as much as possible with numbers collected on EAP. A single set of instructions would be provided to improve consistency of reporting across sections.

The purpose of the collection would be added to the beginning of the instructions so that respondents more fully understand the intent of the collection. Clearer definitions and frequently asked questions (FAQs) would be provided to help respondents.

Changes in Definitions
The definition of the term "faculty" would be clarified in EAP. The terminology might be changed to indicate "instructional employees." As a result, the current instruction for institutions to use their own definition of "faculty" would be eliminated to ensure comparability of data across institutions. An explanation would be added indicating that, although institutions have varying definitions for "faculty," they should classify their instructional employees according to the IPEDS categories and definitions.

The definition of the term "medical school" would include any school that grants an M.D. or D.O. (as determined by information that would be collected in the Institutional Characteristics component). All employees affiliated with (housed with or under the authority of) the medical school would be reported with that school. Any employees that are in health disciplines that are not considered part of a medical school would not be included in the medical school "section."

Changes in Information Collected
The headcount for faculty with less than 9-month contracts would continue to be collected, but the collection of salary and expenditure information for these employees would be eliminated.

Tenure status would be added back to the collection of data on number of faculty by rank (as it was prior to the 2001 data collection).

A question would be added at the end of the merged component to determine if there were any categories of employees that were difficult to categorize in order to assess whether future changes should be made to definitions, instructions, and/or items collected.

A caveat box might be provided for institutions to list the disciplines included in the medical school component.

Implications for Institutions

Individuals responsible for submitting the IPEDS human resources data to NCES should consider the changes that would be required by 2005-06 in their data systems and staff assignments. Concerns and comments should be submitted by February 15, 2005, to Susan Broyles at Susan.Broyles@ed.gov. Include the following in the -email subject line: Human Resources TRP - Proposal Comments.

Timeline

January 4, 2005 - The NCES posted report with proposed changes to IPEDS human resource components (http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/trp9.asp

February 15, 2005 - Deadline for submitting comments and concerns to NCES.

Winter 2005-06 - Proposed implementation of changes to IPEDS human resource components.

Additional Resources

The NCES posting http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/trp9.asp

Complete information about IPEDS - http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds

Author
Carol Fuller

Coordinated by the Higher Education Data Policy Committee. All opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Association for Institutional Research.