Purpose and Functions of the Institutional Research Office
The Office of Institutional Research (OIR), an integral part of the planning and evaluation process, is established to determine the institutional effectiveness appropriate to Bethune-Cookman College. The College’s mission statement is the foundation for institutional planning, long range and short range goal-setting and evaluation. Institutional research employs a variety of assessment methods, via data collection and analysis, to demonstrate the use of results of the planning and evaluation process for the improvement of both educational programs and support activities, since the educational quality of the College determines how effectively the institution has accomplished its established goals.
The main purpose of the OIR is to provide reliable, systematic, and timely information to academic and administrative units in support of the College’s policy and decision-making. The office assists in developing, organizing, maintaining, analyzing and reporting institutional data. It is engaged in ongoing data collection, analysis and distribution resulting in official college statistics to satisfy both internal and external reporting needs; design and implementation of internal studies related to students, personnel, facilities, equipment, programs, services and fiscal resources; development of data bases, via the Center for Information Technology, suitable for longitudinal studies and statistical analysis. The office also provides assistance in establishing outcome measures for accountability and other related activities in support of planning, evaluation and decision-making.
The information generated by the OIR can be applied in understanding, interpreting, managing and evaluating the institution, and in making informed decisions about current operations or future plans. The following are major functions of the OIR:
1. To develop and maintain a technologically retrieval data base of information that will assist in
decision-making pertaining to students, faculty, staff, academic affairs, fiscal resources,
library, physical plant and other areas as deemed necessary.
2. To provide accurate and timely data for mandatory reports, surveys, etc. required from the
OIR by federal, state, accrediting, and other agencies.
3. To serve as a clearing house for all college-related questionnaires, surveys and inquiries in
order to maintain the accuracy and consistency of the data contained.
4. To assist in research projects pertaining to institutional administration and program
development.
5. To coordinate and/or conduct studies that will analyze and assess faculty, staff and
administrators, as well as the programs for which they are responsible.
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