Change With
Analytics Playbook

Access Playbook

Change With
Analytics Playbook

Access Playbook
The Association for Institutional Research (AIR), EDUCAUSE, and the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) stand together with a strong sense of urgency to reaffirm higher education’s commitment to the use of data and analytics to make better strategic decisions. Since the release of The Joint Statement on Analytics (2019), our three associations, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, have partnered with subject matter experts from colleges and universities to develop the Change With Analytics Playbook to support postsecondary institutions in meeting this call to action.

Colleges and universities have 

many challenges to address.

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Colleges and universities have many challenges to address.

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Colleges and universities are constantly confronting new obstacles as they strive to support students and fulfill their missions. Annual surveys of administrators, such as the 2024 EDUCAUSE Top 10 and NACUBO’s Top 5 Higher Education Business Issues, highlight in-the-moment, pressing concerns. Monitoring survey trends over time and reviewing media headlines about higher education reveal persistent challenges. Although how issues present at each institution is unique, by and large, colleges and universities are navigating deep-rooted challenges with enrollment, student success, funding, resource allocation, and communicating their value proposition. One resource that all institutions have to help address these challenges is data.

Using data can help institutions
address challenges, but this brings its
own set of challenges.

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Using data can help institutions address challenges, but this brings its own set of challenges.

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Higher education leaders agree that data should serve as a critical asset to support strategic decision-making; however, this solution is fraught with its own challenges. Despite efforts made by colleges and universities, higher education struggles with both building data-informed cultures and meeting analytics capacity needs. For example, in a national survey of institutional research (IR) offices conducted by AIR, only 39% of respondents indicated that their IR office had sufficient capacity to meet stakeholders’ needs, and only 37% indicated that there was sufficient capacity across the institution to meet needs for data-informed decision-making.

The playbook is designed to help
institutions better use data.

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The playbook is designed to help institutions better use data.

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This playbook is designed to help all institutions, regardless of where they are in their data and analytics journeys, develop and maintain data-informed cultures and build capacities for analytics-enabled decision-making.

To begin putting the playbook into action, access the Change With Analytics Playbook now.

Access Playbook