Benchmarking in Institutional Research (PDF)

While the term benchmarking is commonplace nowadays ininstitutional research and higher education, less common, is asolid understanding of what it really means and how it has been,and can be, used effectively.

This volume begins by defining benchmarking as "astrategic and structured approach whereby an organization comparesaspects of its processes and/or outcomes to those of anotherorganization or set of organizations to identify opportunities forimprovement."

Building on this definition, the chapters provide a briefhistory of the evolution and emergence of benchmarking in generaland in higher education in particular. The authors applybenchmarking to:
* Enrollment management and student success
* Institutional effectiveness
* The potential economic impact of higher education institutionson their host communities.

They look at the use of national external survey data ininstitutional benchmarking and selection of peer institutions,introduce multivariate statistical methodologies for guiding thatselection, and consider a novel application of baseball sabermetricmethods. The volume offers a solid starting point for those new tobenchmarking in higher education and provides examples of currentbest practices and prospective new directions.

This is the 156th volume of this Jossey-Bass series.Always timely and comprehensive, New Directions forInstitutional Research provides planners and administratorsin all types of academic institutions with guidelines in such areasas resource coordination, information analysis, program evaluation,and institutional management.