Using college board data to examine trends in New Hampshire's college‐bound students

Abstract

Many public universities are organized as university systems. These systems vary considerably in size, scope, and governance structure. One model is to have a large flagship institution and several satellite or branch campuses. This is the case for the Indiana University system, which consists of the main campus of Indiana University-Bloomington and seven regional campuses (such as Indiana University-South Bend). Another public university system model includes several public institutions that are separate entities and yet report to a single governing board. This model describes the University System of New Hampshire (USNH), which encompasses the University of New Hampshire, Keene State College, Plymouth State University, and Granite State College. There are other structures that can also be used, with variations in governing structure and the range of institutions included in the system. Many public university systems rely on their own institutional research (IR) offices, in addition to the IR offices from their member institutions, to help conduct the work of the university system. In many ways, the range of activities in a system-level IR office is often very similar to that for a campus-based IR office. The office may be collecting and maintaining data, reporting data to internal and external stakeholders, analyzing data and information to help decision makers, and conducting research on issues of importance to the organization, the field of higher education, and the IR profession.