IPEDS Data Release Memorandum (Memo)

Memorandum for the NCES Review Tracking System (RTS) - IPEDS Data Collection Cycle

2020–21 IPEDS Data Collection: Fall Data Release – Provisional Level

The provisional level data release of the components collected during the fall collection period of the 2020–21 Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) contains substantive changes in file structure or file documentation for two components of IPEDS compared to the previous year. Within the Completions component there were 3 notable changes. First, the less-than-1-year certificate award level was divided into two award level categories. Second, the 2020 version of the Classification of Instructional Programs was required when reporting the program of study associated with an award. Finally, the distance education classification for each program was expanded to collect more detail. Within the 12-Month Enrollment component, institutions were required to disaggregate undergraduate students by enrollment and degree-seeking status, similar to the Fall Enrollment component, and were also required to report distance education data for both undergraduate and graduate students enrolled. Details regarding these changes can be found under “Updates to the Data Collection” on the IPEDS Report Your Data website (https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/report-your-data), as pictured below.

The data are released to the public through the “Use the Data” portal (https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/use-the-data) on the IPEDS website. The IPEDS Methodology has been reviewed and approved by the NCES Review Staff and is currently posted on the IPEDS website as a resource for data users.

IPEDS is an annual, large-scale, web-based survey that collects institution-level data from postsecondary institutions in the United States (50 states and the District of Columbia) and other U.S. jurisdictions.¹ For more information about the IPEDS Survey, its 12 components, and data release procedures visit https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/use-the-data/survey-components. This memorandum documents the IPEDS universe of reporting institutions and response to the fall collection period of the 2020–21 IPEDS, which was open from September 2, 2020 to October 14, 2020.

2020–21 IPEDS Universe of Institutions

The IPEDS universe is established during the fall collection period. During the 2020–21 collection year, there were 6,133 Title IV institutions and administrative offices² in the United States and other jurisdictions of the United States, such as Puerto Rico. For 2020–21, a total of 558 postsecondary institutions were reported exclusively by a parent institution and are not included in the universe counts. The four U.S. service academies that are not Title IV eligible are included in the IPEDS universe because they are federally funded and open to the public.³

NCES statistical standards require that the potential for nonresponse bias for all institutions be analyzed for sectors for which the response rate is less than 85 percent. Because response rates were nearly 100 percent for each survey component, no such analysis was necessary.

Table 1 provides an overview of the number of institutions responding to the components that comprise the fall collection period. This table is updated after each collection period’s data release. Appendix A provides a summary of responses for the previous collection year for comparison purposes. Appendix B shows a table of institutions with a Title IV status change⁴. Of the 182 institutions that changed Title IV status in 2020–21, 103 were for-profit institutions.

Table 1. Summary of Response by IPEDS Survey Component, 2020-21 Data Collection

IPEDS Survey Component	Number of Institutions
IPEDS Survey Component	Not required to report ¹	Expected to respond	Did not respond²	Provided data
Fall Collection Period: September 2, 2020 and October 14, 2020
Institutional Characteristics	0	6,133	1	6,132
Completions ³	0	6,063	5	6,058
12-Month Enrollment ³	8	6,055	6	6,049
Winter Collection Period: December 9, 2020 and February 10, 2021
Admissions ³	—	—	—	—
Graduation Rates ³	—	—	—	—
200 Percent Graduation Rates ³	—	—	—	—
Outcome Measures ³	—	—	—	—
Student Financial Aid ³	—	—	—	—
Spring Collection Period: December 9, 2020 and April 7, 2021
Academic Libraries ³	—	—	—	—
Fall Enrollment ³	—	—	—	—
Finance	—	—	—	—
Human Resources	—	—	—	—

Notes:

— Data currently not available.

¹ Not required to respond to the survey component because the institutions were new, were closed, did not enroll students, or did not meet the criteria for the component (e.g., some components only apply to degree-granting institutions).

² Due to unit nonresponse, all data were imputed for nonresponding institutions.

³ Does not include the 70 administrative offices. An administrative office is a system or central office in a multi-campus environment.

NOTE: Title IV institutions are those with a written agreement with the U.S. Department of Education that allows the institution to participate in any of the Title IV federal student financial assistance programs. The four U.S. service academies that are not Title IV eligible are included in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) universe because they are federally funded and open to the public. Definitions for terms used in this table may be found in the IPEDS online glossary located at https://surveys.nces.ed.gov/ipeds/public/glossary.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS 2020–21 collection (provisional data).

For any questions related to this data product release, please contact Tara Lawley, IPEDS Program Director, (tara.lawley@ed.gov).

¹ The other U.S. jurisdictions surveyed in IPEDS are American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, the Marshall Islands, Palau, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

² Title IV institutions and administrative offices include 6,063 institutions and 70 administrative (central or system) offices. The central and system offices are required to complete the Institutional Characteristics component in the fall, the Human Resources component in the spring, and the Finance component in the spring (if they have their own separate budget).

³ The four U.S. service academies that are not Title IV eligible are the U.S. Naval Academy, the U.S. Military Academy, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and the U.S. Air Force Academy. The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy is Title IV eligible. Data for all five institutions are included in the tables and counts of institutions unless otherwise indicated.

⁴ An institution may be classified as changing Title IV status for the following reasons: it closed, it no longer provides federal funded financial assistance, it lost Title IV eligibility, it combined or merged with another institution, it is new, it began to provide federal funded financial assistance, or it regained Title IV eligibility.

Table B-1. Number of Title IV Institutions and number changing Title IV status: United States and other U.S. jurisdictions, academic years 2019–20 and 2020–21

Sector of Institution	Title IV institutions in 2019-20		Title IV institutions in 2020-21		Net change in Title IV institutions from 2019–20 to 2020–21¹
Sector of Institution	Number	Number that are no longer Title IV in 2020-21	Number	Number that became Title IV since 2019-20
All Institutions	6,145	182	6,063	100	-82

Public 4-year	791	30	773	1	-29
Private nonprofit 4-year	1,621	27	1,608	10	-17
Private for-profit 4-year	352	22	343	10	-12

Public 2-year	946	10	920	1	-9
Private nonprofit 2-year	146	4	139	1	-3
Private for-profit 2-year	563	20	564	29	9

Public less-than-2-year	223	4	226	1	-3
Private nonprofit less-than-2-year	59	4	59	4	0
Private for-profit less-than-2-year	1,444	61	1,431	43	-18

¹ The net change indicated in this table is the result of changes to Title IV status (number that became Title IV since 2019–20 minus the number that were no longer Title IV as of 2020–21). Institutions that changed sector between 2019–20 and 2020–21 are not reflected in this column.

NOTE: Title IV institutions are those with a written agreement with the U.S. Department of Education that allows the institution to participate in any of the Title IV federal student financial assistance programs. The United States includes the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The four U.S. service academies that are not Title IV eligible are included in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) universe because they are federally funded and open to the public. An institution may be classified as changing Title IV status because it closed, it no longer provides federally funded financial assistance, it lost Title IV eligibility, it combined or merged with another institution, it is new, it began to provide federally funded financial assistance, or it regained Title IV eligibility. The other U.S. jurisdictions include American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, the Marshall Islands, Palau, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Definitions for terms used in this table may be found in the IPEDS online glossary located at https://surveys.nces.ed.gov/ipeds/public/glossary.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS, Fall 2019 Institutional Characteristics component (provisional data) and Fall 2020 Institutional Characteristics component (provisional data).

Table A-1. Summary of Response by IPEDS Survey Component, 2019–20 Data Collection

IPEDS Survey Component	Number of Institutions
IPEDS Survey Component	Not required to report ¹	Expected to respond	Did not respond²	Provided data
Fall Collection Period: September 4, 2019 to October 16, 2019
Institutional Characteristics	0	6,216	0	6,216
Completions ³	0	6,145	1	6,144
12-Month Enrollment ³	7	6,138	2	6,136
Winter Collection Period: December 11, 2019 to February 12, 2020
Admissions ³	4,129	2,016	1	2,015
Graduation Rates ³	646	5,499	5	5,494
200 Percent Graduation Rates ³	1,042	5,103	1	5,102
Outcome Measures ³	2,443	3,702	4	3,698
Student Financial Aid ³	83	6,062	4	6,058
Spring Collection Period: December 9, 2019 to May 9, 2020 and September 9, 2020 to October 28, 2020
Academic Libraries ³	2,110	4,035	1	4,034
Fall Enrollment ³	13	6,132	11	6,121
Finance	4	6,212	13	6,199
Human Resources	11	6,205	8	6,197

Notes:

² Due to unit nonresponse, all data were imputed.

³ Does not include the 71 administrative offices. An administrative office is a system or central office in a multi-campus environment.

NOTE: Title IV institutions are those with a written agreement with the U.S. Department of Education that allows the institution to participate in any of the Title IV federal student financial assistance programs. The four U.S. service academies that are not Title IV eligible are included in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) universe because they are federally funded and open to the public. Definitions for terms used in this table may be found in the IPEDS online glossary located at https://surveys.nces.ed.gov/ipeds/public/glossary.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS 2019–20 collection (provisional data).