Higher Education Comparison Sources: A Comprehensive Guide
Choosing a college or university is a significant life decision. Fortunately, numerous resources exist to help students, families, researchers, and policymakers navigate the complex landscape of higher education. This article spotlights key databases, rankings, and tools that offer valuable insights into various aspects of colleges and universities.
Data-Driven Journalism in Higher Education
For journalists covering higher education, grounding stories in high-quality data is crucial. Government agencies and academic researchers have gathered extensive data on various topics, making it freely available online. This guide highlights several essential higher education databases.
Key Higher Education Databases
Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS): This is the primary source for data on colleges and universities. Use it to look up information about an institution’s admission rate, tuition, undergraduate enrollment, academic programs, athletic programs and other characteristics.
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) DataLab: Journalists can use this online platform, another NCES project, to find detailed information on various topics across K-12 education and higher education. DataLab’s Tables Library contains more than 8,000 data tables published by the NCES.
Data.gov: You’ll find thousands of government data sets and data-heavy reports here - the federal government’s open data site.
Read also: Transformations in Higher Education
Campus Safety and Security Data Analysis Cutting Tool: This tool provides data on crimes reported by colleges and universities that receive federal funding. Crimes that institutions report annually to the federal government include murder, aggravated assault, rape, hate crimes, domestic violence, motor vehicle theft and violations of state or local liquor laws.
Office for Civil Rights (OCR), U.S. Department of Education: The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights investigates discrimination complaints.
OCR Case Resolution Search, U.S. Department of Education: Here you can find information on investigations of alleged Title IX and Title VI violations. Title IX is a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination at K-12 schools, colleges and universities that receive federal financial assistance.
Healthy Minds Study: This research database houses data collected as part of the Healthy Minds Study, an annual survey that asks college students about their mental health and their school environment, including campus safety, peer support and mental health services.
CIRCLE (Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement): Tufts University’s Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement - commonly known as CIRCLE - has created several online data tools journalists can use to obtain data for stories about young voters and civic engagement on college campuses.
Read also: Key Trends in Education
Retraction Watch: If you’re looking into allegations of research fraud or misconduct, Retraction Watch can help. It maintains a database of retracted scientific papers that reporters can use to search for retractions connected to a specific researcher, university or research organization. There’s also a user guide.
ProPublica’s NonProfit Explorer: Use this database, created by ProPublica, to look up tax returns and Form 990 filings for almost 2 million tax-exempt organizations, including non-profit colleges and universities.
Community College Research Center (CCRC): This project focuses on community colleges and their students. For example, one focuses on community college finances during the pandemic. Another focuses on dual enrollment programs, which allow high school students to enroll at local colleges to earn college credits.
Alliance for Equity in Higher Education: This project provides data on minority-serving institutions, or MSIs. Some of these colleges and universities were founded specifically to serve racial minorities - for example, historically Black colleges and universities only served Black students for decades.
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Read also: Higher Education Affordability Crisis
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Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey: Each year, the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics conducts a census of colleges and universities that spend at least $150,000 on research and development. The center, part of the National Science Foundation, publishes data tables and reports on the results of its Higher Education Research and Development Survey.
EdWorkingPapers: EdWorkingPapers is a searchable database of academic working papers on a variety of K-12 education and higher education topics.
Education Resources Information Center (ERIC): Commonly referred to as ERIC, the Education Resources Information Center is a searchable database of education research and information found in academic journals, books and government reports.
College and University Rankings
College rankings can be a useful starting point for students. U.S. News & World Report offers a "Best Colleges" directory. These profiles are packed with information about a school’s cost, financial aid policies, admissions requirements, student body and more. Together, the rankings and profiles can help students learn about a range of school options - public and private, large and small - throughout the country, some of which they might not have considered before. U.S. News also created lists of Best Value Schools and schools that award merit aid to the most students.
Times Higher Education has provided trusted performance data on universities for students and their families, academics, university leaders, governments and industry since 2004.
Additional Resources
CollegeSource: TES, the Transfer Evaluation System, is the premier interactive resource for course data from institutions of higher education.
uAchieve: The uAchieve academic planning system helps to maximize credit applicability and ensure students have accurate, complete, and personalized information to achieve their educational goals on time and on their terms.
Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education: In 1970, the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education began developing a classification of colleges and universities to support its program of research and policy analysis. The Carnegie Classification site provides an Institution Search tool that allows users to search and filter institutions based on one or more Carnegie Classifications. The Carnegie Elective Classifications are recognitions earned by institutions that have made extraordinary commitments to their public purpose. Institutions apply for recognition from the Carnegie Foundation through a particular Elective Classification theme and make extraordinary commitments to that theme.
Events and Professional Development
TES Basic Certification Course: The TES Basic Certification Course is held virtually over two half days.
Transfer Week Webinar Series: Join webinars on topics such as evolving policies and practical approaches to awarding credit for prior learning, bonus demos of TES and uAchieve, and keynote kickoffs.
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