Over the last several days, I have written about data analysis provided by the Institute for Higher Education Policy on the value of a college degree based on the issuing institution. The analysis brings up a bigger point: why institutions – which spend untold hours every year collecting and reporting their operational data to various agencies at the state and federal levels – don’t make data-driven decisions.
For example, every year, institutions must report their enrollment data. The same institutions also know which programs their students enroll in; what percentage of enrolled students complete their programs within 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 years; which courses students fail (or drop) most frequently; which programs students are most likely to change their majors from and to; when students are most at risk for dropping out, and a whole host of other data points that institutions can use to improve student outcomes.
Further, these institutions can combine their own data with data from other sources. For example, institutions can analyze data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to see where their course offerings overlap areas of increased (and decreased) labor demand. Likewise, they can use hiring local and national hiring data to determine how well their academic programs line up with the skills employers identify as desirable when hiring new employees. Hiring data can also provide a window into expected earnings for a program graduate. If anticipated salaries are stagnant or declining, the institution could make changes to the program to improve their students’ marketability, or the value of their degrees.
Data-driven decisions need to be the norm
There is no shortage of reliable data that institutions can use to shape the decisions they make about their curriculum. Making data-driven decisions can improve academic programs, identify areas of new growth, improve student recruiting and outcomes, select programs for elimination, locate unnecessary expenses; isolate the impact of tuition increases on enrollment, and more.
Now, you can argue that institutions already make data-driven decisions. If that’s the case, why has enrollment declined so much at the community college level? Why are there huge unmet labor needs in certain industries, while others have a glut of workers and few or no openings? If administrators were using the data to analyze their situations and make data-driven decisions, the outlook for community colleges might look very different, private colleges wouldn’t be imploding, and flagship universities would not be overwhelmed by applicants clamoring to get in.
Would-be (and would-have-been) students are making decisions based on the facts in front of them. Higher education institutions should do the same.
Photo Credit: Sebastian Sikora, via Flickr
