Home

DEPARTMENT OF INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH

The Department of Institutional Research is the part of Westcliff University that is responsible for providing services to all other departments and to the students via the collection, interpretation, and analysis of data. Westcliff University has adopted and promoted a university-wide culture focused on data-driven decision making for most all of its operations, processes, and procedures. Therefore, both the quantity and quality of data collected and analyzed by the Department of Institutional Research for the purpose of making decisions is of immense importance to the success of both Westcliff University as an institution of higher education and, more importantly, to the success of its students as they pursue achievement of the learning outcomes.

For data request, please contact us through this form.

Mission

The purpose of these data is to effectively demonstrate how well Westcliff achieves its goals and objectives, which focus on enhancing the performance and the achievement of learning outcomes by students. As Westcliff has adopted a data-driven decision making culture, the data are extremely important.

Vision

The vision of the university’s Department of Institutional Research is to become globally recognized as a premier center of institutional data collection, interpretation, and analyses that result in enhanced university decision-making.

Strategic Goals

The strategic goals of the university’s Department of Institutional Research are to:

  • Improve student learning and program quality through a systematic process of planning, evidence collection, reporting, analyses, and related actions
  • Collaborate with other entities to develop a reliable data collection and reporting system
  • Offer accurate, timely, unbiased and easily understood statistics and analyses to support institutional planning
  • Further the university’s mission and major initiatives through the promotion of evidence-based and research-informed decision making
  • Provide data for compliance, accreditation, and to inform the public
  • Understand better the expectations, self-perceptions, and needs of the university’s students through the development and analyses of survey instruments
  • Enhance the structure for and analyses of student learning assessments
  • Coordinate the assessment of program reviews
  • Coordinate the assessment of co-curricular activities
  • Improve the use of technology in all assessments and analyses
  • Promote university-wide the use of improved benchmarking for all analyses
  • Facilitate implementation of all data management systems to maximize quality assurance

Values

The daily use of the following four values is applicable to all functions of the department:

     A. Integrity

Provide information and data that are: accurate, reliable and valid.

     B. Applicability

Provide information and data that are: customized to meet the needs of the audience for which the data were prepared, current and timely, and relevant to the decisions that they inform.

     C. Accessibility

Provide information and data that are: readily available, easily understood, and strategically disseminated to those who need it.

     D. Professionalism

Operation with the assurance that there is: collaborative analysis, use of best practices, and use of ethical standards.

 

As Westcliff is affiliated with the Association for Institutional Research via membership in the organization, the Westcliff DIR fully abides by the AIR Code of Ethics and Professional Practice.