Archived Changes
Changes to IPEDS Data Collections, 2011-12
Approval has been received from the Office of Management and Budget
Most of the proposed changes are suggestions from the IPEDS Technical Review Panel (TRP). Meetings of the IPEDS TRP are convened by RTI International, the contractor for the IPEDS web-based data collection system; subject areas for the meetings are determined by legislation, emerging areas of concern in postsecondary education, and an ongoing goal of decreasing reporting burden while retaining the federal data necessary for use by policy makers and education analysts. Detailed summaries of each meeting are posted ( https://edsurveys.rti.org/IPEDS_TRP) and comments on panel suggestions are solicited. Four meetings of the TRP resulted in changes included in this clearance package, as summarized in the table below.
| IPEDS TRP Meetings Relevant to Proposed Changes | |||
| Topic (Date) | Summary | Survey Components Affected | |
| Distance Education (April 2008) | The IPEDS TRP met to discuss evolving delivery modes for postsecondary education and increased availability of "distance education" course and programs. Topics ranged from the definition of distance education to the challenges that institutions would face in providing distance education data. The panel discussed how the reporting of distance education data might be incorporated into the existing IPEDS reporting structure in order to collect data that would help NCES better describe postsecondary education in the nation, part of NCES’ mission; allow institutions to compare their distance education activities to those of their peers; and provide valuable consumer information on College Navigator to students and parents. | Institutional Characteristics; Completions; Fall Enrollment | |
| Completions (December 2009) | A common question NCES receives from policymakers asks for the number of postsecondary graduates in a given year who would likely be entering the workforce. Because IPEDS currently collects data on the number of completions (certificates and degrees awarded) rather than completers (graduates), it cannot accurately answer this question. Graduates may receive, for example, two degrees in a given year or a degree and certificate, and then they would be reported twice, over counting the number of persons completing programs and feasibly entering the workforce. The TRP met to discuss whether and how data on completers could be collected through the IPEDS Completions survey. | Completions | |
| Human Resources (June 2010) | The TRP examined the reporting burden for degree-granting institutions completing the Human Resources component and discussed strategies for simplifying the collection forms and eliminating potentially duplicative or unnecessary data in order to reduce institutional burden and improve the usefulness and quality of the data being reported. | Human Resources | |
| Net Price, Student Financial Aid, and Program Reporting Issues (September 2010) | The IPEDS TRP met to discuss improving the IPEDS data items that were added to meet Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) requirement for reporting net price, particularly for those institutions that currently report pricing data to IPEDS by program, rather than by academic year. The TRP discussed ways of improving the SFA component, through which most of the net price data are collected, by further clarifying definitions and reporting elements and better aligning the SFA component for program reporters with the data reported by these institutions in other IPEDS components. | Institutional Characteristics (and Pricing); Student Financial Aid; 12-month Enrollment | |
Below are the changes organized by survey component. Please note that these changes will be implemented for 2011-12, with no optional reporting.
OMB has also approved changes to IPEDS that will not take effect until the 2012-13 data collection. These changes will be posted when the 2011-12 data collection opens. 2011-12 will serve as a "preview year" for those changes, and details about how they will appear on survey screens in 2012-13 will also be made available.
| 2011-12 Proposed Changes to IPEDS Data Collection | |||
| Change | Source | ||
| Institutional Characteristics (all institutions) | |||
| Add an item to collect information on whether institutions are completely distance education. | Distance Education TRP | ||
Add an item to collect the institution’s URL for the Net Price Calculator, to be posted to College Navigator. Note: Institutions must post a Net Price Calculator on their website by 10/29/2011, as required by the HEOA. |
Legislation (HEOA) | ||
|
Revise IPEDS definition of distance education, to align with that specified in HEOA, which specifically distinguishes distance education from correspondence education. Current IPEDS definition: An option for earning course credit at off-campus locations via cable television, internet, satellite classes, videotapes, correspondence courses, or other means. Proposed IPEDS definition: Education that uses one or more technologies to deliver instruction to students who are separated from the instructor and to support regular and substantive interaction between the students and the instructor synchronously or asynchronously. Note: This definition will apply across IPEDS components wherever distance education is referenced. |
Distance Education TRP | ||
|
Clarify IPEDS instructions to specify that requirements for coming to campus for orientation, testing, or academic support services do not exclude a course from being classified as distance education. Technologies used for instruction may include the following: Internet; one-way and two-way transmissions through open broadcasts, closed circuit, cable, microwave, broadband lines, fiber optics, satellite or wireless communication devices; audio conferencing; and video cassette, DVDs, and CD-ROMs, if the cassette, DVDs, and CD-ROMs are used in a course in conjunction with the technologies listed above. Note: These clarifications will apply across IPEDS components wherever data on distance education are collected. |
Distance Education TRP | ||
| Institutional Characteristics (program reporters) | |||
|
Add items to collect prorated academic year price for largest program (in addition to the currently collected program price). Note: Institutions already must calculate this number for purposes of awarding Pell grants. |
Net Price/SFA TRP and Legislation (HEOA) | ||
| Completions (all institutions) | |||
|
Clarify instructions to specify that only credit awards are to be reported. Note: Credit awards may be measured in credit, contact, or clock hours. |
Completions TRP | ||
| 12-month Enrollment (all institutions) | |||
| Eliminate the choice of reporting periods, so that all institutions report for the July 1–June 30 period. | Net Price/SFA TRP | ||
| Human Resources (degree-granting institutions with 15+ FT staff) | |||
| Eliminate the nine salary class interval screens from the Fall Staff section of the component. This includes all of Part H and all but the last screen in Part I (the headcount of full-time non-IRPS staff by primary function, race/ethnicity and gender, which is not captured anywhere else in the component). | Human Resources TRP | ||
| Eliminate the two fringe benefits screens (Part F) from the Salaries section. | Human Resources TRP | ||
| Human Resources (degree-granting institutions with < 15 ft staff) | |||
| Eliminate the two fringe benefits screens (Part F) from the Salaries section of the component. | Human Resources TRP | ||
| Eliminate the collection of data by faculty status from the EAP and Salaries sections (Parts A, B, and D), since degree-granting institutions with < 15 full-time staff report most of their staff in the "Not on tenure track/no tenure system" category or in the "Without faculty status" category. | Human Resources TRP | ||
| Combine the EAP and Fall Staff sections into a single section since both sections collect data on the number of full-time and part-time staff. In odd-numbered years, the reporting of data by race/ethnicity and gender will be required, and in even-numbered years, the reporting of race/ethnicity and gender will be optional. | Human Resources TRP | ||
| Graduation Rates and 200% Graduation Rates (all institutions) | |||
| Return a past IPEDS data collection item to capture the number of students who are still enrolled at the time of the graduate rate calculations, to get a better idea of how many students are still on a path toward a degree or certificate program (rather than have dropped out). | NPEC Graduation Rates Working Group | ||
| Student Financial Aid (all institutions) | |||
|
Move SFA from the Spring collection to the Winter collection to improve calculation of the Net Price data displayed on College Navigator, per HEOA. Average institutional net prices are calculated on SFA, using data submitted on SFA and IC. Currently, no revisions to IC pricing data can be accepted during most of the time when SFA is open. NCES would like to be able to accept IC pricing data revisions once institutions see the net price calculations on the SFA worksheets; this will be possible if SFA is a Winter survey. Extend Winter collection by two weeks. In November 2007, the IPEDS TRP suggested that SFA be collected in a "late winter" collection that would run from approximately 11/15 through 2/1 for keyholders. Extending the Winter collection by two weeks would come close to the end date suggested by the TRP. |
NCES initiated and Collection Calendar TRP (Nov 2007) | ||
| Add an additional column to Part E to collect the number of students in Group 4 (see Figure 1 for a description of the SFA groups) receiving any Title IV grant aid, by income categories. | Net Price/SFA TRP | ||
| Clarify SFA instructions for reporting grant aid to students. For reporting grant aid, institutions should report "aid awarded," rather than "aid received" or "aid awarded and accepted." There is no change to how loans to students should be reported. Institutions should continue to report on loans that were awarded to and accepted by the student. | Net Price/SFA TRP | ||
| Student Financial Aid (program reporters) | |||
| Change the 12-month full aid year reporting period and cohort definition period to July 1–June 30. This is the 12-month period that the institutionally-defined academic year must fall within. | Net Price/SFA TRP and Legislation (HEOA) | ||
| Collect data for Groups 1 and 2 (see Figure 1 below) for an academic year, as defined by the institution, rather than a 12-month period. | Net Price/SFA TRP and Legislation (HEOA) | ||
| Modify Group 3 and 4 sections to collect data for an academic year, for ONLY students in the institution’s largest program. The institution will determine its own definition of academic year, so long as it falls within the 12-month reporting period. Please note that since HEOA requires three years’ worth of data on net price, if an institution’s largest program changes, the institution will need to report three years’ worth of data for the new largest program. | Net Price/SFA TRP and Legislation (HEOA) | ||
Figure 1. SFA Student Reporting Groups
Group 1. All undergraduate students
Group 2. Of the students in Group 1, those who are full-time, first-time degree/certificate-seeking students
Group 3. Of the students in Group 2, those who received grant or scholarship aid from the federal government, state/local government, or the institution
Group 4. Of the students in Group 2, those who received Title IV federal student aid
