Strategic Enrollment Planning Support

The Office of Institutional Research supports planning, decision-making, and accountability at The University of the South by collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and reporting institutional data and information with accuracy and integrity. The Office serves as the primary source of reliable, consistent, definition-driven data about the University. A number of reports and dashboards are publicly available at the Office’s website.

The resources of the Institutional Research Office are focused each year on producing a wide array of recurring internal and external reports and in administering a number of student, faculty, staff, and alumni surveys. The office gives priority to the additional data and information needs of governing boards, senior administration, and university-wide planning initiatives such as Strategic Enrollment Planning (SEP). 

Reports and data sets can usually be constructed around the following classes of data and data elements. In most cases, data do not originate in the Office of Institutional Research. Instead, almost all of the institutional data collected by and reported upon by the office originates in and is maintained by other units across the University, including Undergraduate Admissions, Dean of College of Arts and Sciences, Dean of the School of Theology, Dean of Students, Financial Aid, Human Resources, Treasurer, University Advancement, and University Registrar. Each of these offices is responsible for the accuracy, quality, and integrity of the data it produces.

Undergraduate Applicants

    • demographics (age, sex, race, ethnicity, citizenship, geographic origin, marital status, religion, legacy status, and veteran status)
    • educational background (high school type, high school quality, high school GPA, standardized test scores, class rank, first-generation-in-college status, and parent educational level)
    • applicant ratings (HRRC academic, admission counselor, essay, leadership, fit, yield)
    • application (status, round/type, test optional, staff assigned, decision, applicant response, and outcome)

Undergraduate Financial Aid

    • need (federal methodology, institutional methodology, and HCRC rating)
    • income (student, parental, and wealth decile)
    • awards (type, source, name, amount, and status)
    • external resources (grants and loans)

Undergraduate Students

    • demographics (age, sex, race, ethnicity, citizenship, geographic origin, marital status, religion, legacy status, and veteran status)
    • cohorts (first-year, transfer, first-year program participants, and first-year athletes)
    • pre-professional interests (multiple engineering types, multiple health types, and law)
    • assigned advisors
    • assigned faculty
    • academic and enrollment records (enrollment status, registration status, midterm grades, final grades, grade changes, pass-fail grading, credits attempted, credits earned, grape point averages, academic standing, Order of Gown, withdrawals, degrees, and programs of study)
    • transferring students (transcripts sent and enrolled institutions)
    • student life (residence hall and meal plan assignments)
    • student accounts (tuition, fees, room charges, board charges, course fees, discretionary fees, fines, financial aid disbursements and payments)

Finance and Advancement

    • revenues and expenditures (functional and natural classifications)
    • assets and liabilities
    • endowment
    • fundraising

Human Resources

    • faculty
    • staff

Comparative Institutional Data

The Institutional Research Office can report comparative data from a number of sources. Aggregated data may be available on the following: admissions, advancement, enrollment, finance, financial aid, graduation, human resources, libraries, retention, and other topics.

All data reported by the Office of Institutional Research are proprietary.

Procedures for Requesting Data and Information

Before requesting data, please check to see if the information your are seeking is already available at the Institutional Research website. If you need to make a customized data request, please use the SEP Data Request Form. This form should be completed at least 30 days in advance of the date when the desired data are needed. The Office of Institutional Research will contact the requester within a reasonable timeline to discuss, advise upon, and clarify requests and timelines. Every effort will be made to fulfill requests, but It may not be possible to do so, especially in cases where the data needed are not collected or are not reasonably available or where the accuracy, quality, and integrity of the data is deemed unreliable.