Administrators in the world of higher education have important decisions to make about every aspect of campus life. They need to rely on the most up-to-date data within their own systems to make sure they are making the most informed decisions about whatever facet they are taking on any given day.
The decisions can range from the academic to those involving building maintenance to financial decisions, and everything in between. And sometimes new data from somewhere else enters the picture and forces an organization’s hand on certain decisions. Here’s an example of the type of information that can influence a university’s decision-making timetable, and how data can be used to help facilitate the process.
Ranking against peers
One data point schools spend a lot of time looking at is where they stand among their peers. There are different ways to measure up against the competition, but one of the most well-known comes in the form of U.S. News & World Report’s annual ranking of best colleges. The 2025 rankings were released recently, listing schools under the categories of national universities, which offer a full range of undergraduate majors, plus master’s and Ph.D. programs, or liberal arts, emphasizing undergraduate education and awarding at least half of their degrees in the liberal arts fields of study.
The rankings historically are compiled based on metrics such as GPAs, SAT scores, and financial aid packages, but this year’s list includes a formula that more heavily weighs schools based on the performance and graduation rate of their Pell Grant recipients. Many schools are tracking this data for themselves on their own, but these rankings offer a chance to look at data from other schools they might not already have accessed.
Academic offerings
One of the details schools watch closely among their peers is academic offerings. Higher education institutions are using multiple data points to make sure they are providing students with classes that are relevant to their majors, thereby enticing student enrollment or staying ahead of the competition. Schools will survey students about what classes contributed to their decision to enroll at the university, or by surveying students who chose not to attend their school, whether a class offered by another university factored into their choice. Over the past few years, since the pandemic increased the popularity of online-only courses, classes in that format have become a big drawing point.
When something is new, it can be hard to measure and take any meaningful data away. Online learning, though, has become popular enough that there have been studies showing whether it is as effective as in-class learning. For some schools and students, those details might not matter a ton – students like the flexibility online classes can offer them, and schools like that offering online classes can make them appealing to students who otherwise might not consider attending college at all, let alone theirs. According to a study published by Forbes, in 2012, 75% of college students took all of their classes in person. In 2022, 54% of students took at least one distance education course, with approximately 26% taking their classes fully online. This is the type of data a school will consider from an outside source when it makes decisions about what classes it is offering.
Data can be the difference
The world of higher education is in a precarious place. Large colleges and universities have a high standard they are held to that they need to continue meeting, while small colleges face tough decisions around cutting costs. Many have been forced to merge or permanently close because of decreasing enrollment. Data and analytics can be the difference in helping a college or university keep their doors open.
It is important that a school chooses the right analytics solution for its needs. Colleges and universities are often dealing with an infrastructure that provide data from many different systems across campus. Schools need that data to come together seamlessly to provide one universal truth that they can trust for their decision-making needs. The solution also needs to be flexible enough to either grow with your institution or to meet the diverse demands of a college campus. Whether it’s enrollment figures, alumni information, tuition and salary, governance, or related to buildings and grounds, and whether it is coming from the university itself or an outside study, the data can be formatted by the right analytics solution in a way that can help administrators make the type of informed decisions about a school’s health that can keep it in business.
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