Institutional Research and the Monitoring of Institutional Performance

Institutional research utilisation and issues of legitimacy: Perspectives from practitioners at selected traditional universities

“…Hence interviews with those who self-identified as institutional research practitioners and/or worked in institutional researchand planning-related units at universities participating in the bigger study were purposefully selected for further analysis. In this context, institutional research and planning refer to those university departments that undertake a broad range of activities that support institutional planning, policy development and decision-making (Bleazard, 2016).…”

“…In order to comply with the law and meet its reporting obligations while balancing demands for public accountability, universities have had to invest in growing their institutional research and planning capacity. It is commonly acknowledged that contemporary IR units undertake a wide range of work broadly associated with data preparation, analysis, and reporting for the purposes of planning, monitoring and evaluation, and supporting decision-making (Badat, 2013;Bleazard, 2016;Coughlin et al, 2016;Díaz, Mercier & Pinsent, 2017;Shah & Aumann, 2012). However, less is known about the extent to which IR data, findings and reports are in fact used.…”