Every U.S. postsecondary institution that awards federal financial aid must submit data to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) as part of the Integrated Postsecondary Data System (IPEDS). In addition to the demands of IPEDS reporting, institutions must respond to federal, state, and district requests for information and provide a wealth of information to satisfy institutional accreditation. How involved is the IR Office in compliance reporting? The short answer is “very involved.”

Nearly 90% of IR Offices responding to the 2015 National Survey of IR Offices indicated that their institution’s IPEDS Keyholder resided within the IR Office (the IPEDS Keyholder is responsible for ensuring that all data are accurately entered and that those data are locked for review).

The survey also asked about several compliance-related tasks. We found that over 75% of IR Offices (regardless of sector) were primarily responsible for their institution’s compliance reporting with the exception of institutional accreditation. In this case, approximately one-fourth of IR Offices were primarily responsible, and two-thirds shared that responsibility with other units.

We are preparing for the next launch of the National Survey of IR Offices. If you have suggestions for items that should appear on the survey, please email Darlena Jones at djones@airweb.org.