Summer 2005
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Summer 2005 |
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Through its several data initiatives, CIC continues to seek opportunities for improving the capacity of member institutions to gain access to and utilize data that enhance institutional decision-making and institutional effectiveness. Two recent activities further expand CIC’s contribution to these ends. First, the Key Indicators Tool (KIT), which was introduced in June 2004, is being updated this summer with the latest data available from the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). A subsequent update will be sent in 2006 following the next release of IPEDS data. This important benchmarking tool, free to CIC members, provides a customized, confidential report for each president on 16 indicators of institutional performance. Each indicator is presented with regional and national comparisons over a five-year period based on three sorting criteria: region, financial resources, and enrollment size. The national comparison group includes 750 independent colleges and universities in the U.S. belonging to the four Carnegie Classification categories that represent 94 percent of CIC’s membership: Baccalaureate-General, Baccalaureate-Liberal Arts, Masters I, and Masters II. The KIT 2005 update retains the same basic look and structure as the original version, with a few improvements:
Second,
CIC recently reached an agreement with The Austen Group, the producers
of the KIT, to undertake a pilot project providing a Financial Indicators
Tool (FIT) for approximately 70 CIC member institutions. The FIT report
will provide comparative data on four indicators of financial strength,
along with a fifth composite indicator, using regional and national
comparisons over a six-year period. The FIT is a distinctive product
that utilizes publicly available data from both IPEDS and IRS Form
990s, and presents the indicators in a comparative format. Should
the FIT pilot prove successful, CIC may produce future reports for
all CIC members.
Both the KIT updates and the FIT pilot are funded by grants from the William Randolph Hearst Foundations in support of CIC’s data initiatives. Independent |
