A new service of the Higher Education Data Policy Committee (HEDPC), IR in the Know keeps you up-to-date on current and emerging issues related to higher education data collection, analyses, and reporting.

Each month IR in the Know focuses on data and policy issues relevant to institutional researchers such as accountability, assessment, accreditation, NCES, federal legislation, and national databases. Each issue will include a brief issue summary and links to more detailed information.

We welcome your feedback and suggestions. If you discover a resource or article you think might be useful to other IR professionals, please send an e-mail to irintheknow@airweb.org.

APLU Survey of Coping Strategies During Recession of 2009

The Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) released the results of a survey of its members regarding the impact of the financial crisis on their campuses. Almost half of their 188 public 4-year institution members, representing 41 states, responded to the survey. The summary describes the severity of the budget reductions and categorizes the coping strategies employed, such as tuition and fee increases, other revenue enhancements, cuts to enrollment, and other budget cutting efforts. The paper, written by Christine M. Keller, can be found here: http://www.aplu.org/NetCommunity/Document.Doc?id=1998.

Project on Student Debt

The Institute for College Access and Success released their latest information on the average debt of graduating seniors at public and private non-profit, four-year colleges and the percentage of those graduates with debt in 2007. The site provides state-by-state comparisons, as well as institution-specific data as reported by the institutions in response to a survey based on the "Common Data Set" (CDS). The report is available at: http://www.projectonstudentdebt.org/state_by_state-data.php.

Pell Institute: Bridging the Gaps to Success

The Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education has released a new report, Bridging the Gaps to Success, which describes promising practices for promoting transfer among low-income and first-generation college students. Conducted by the Pell Institute and funded by Texas Guaranteed (TG), the report looks at what has worked in increasing transfer rates for low-income and first-generation students at each of six Texas Community Colleges, gleans from them a set of best practices common to each of the schools, and then makes specific recommendations for replicating these practices at other community colleges, both in Texas and throughout the nation. http://www.pellinstitute.org/pdf/COE_Pell_Report_layout_3.pdf.

ACE Web site: Projects on Accountability and Higher Education Outcomes

The American Council on Education (ACE) maintains a Web site to help members of the higher education community keep track of new developments on projects relating to major accountability and learning outcome initiatives occurring in the United States and abroad: http://www.acenet.edu/Content/NavigationMenu/OnlineResources/Accountability/index.htm