The U.S. institutional research office does not follow a common organizational structure. Each IR office evolved to serve the unique needs of their institution. However, there are a few information studies that a lot of IR offices produce. Preliminary findings from the 2018 AIR National Survey of IR Offices show that more than 80% of IR offices are involved in studies like attrition/retention/graduation analyses and reporting tasks like IPEDS and the Factbook. It’s interesting to note that no study listed in the National Survey garnered 100% of the IR offices – not even IPEDS reporting (5% of U.S. IR offices reporting are not involved in IPEDS reporting).

Does your IR Office participate in these studies? If not, which office at your institution is responsible?