Archive
Research Report
February 12, 2026
What Commission Action Letters Reveal
A Thematic Analysis of WSCUC Decisions (2012–2024)
In the United States, quality assurance is directly tied to the accreditation process. By analyzing the decisions that accreditors record in their formal action letters, we can identify the most common issues that institutions face and the priorities that shape accreditors’ decisions.
Topics:
Tags:
Research Report
February 12, 2026
Regional Accreditation Standards
A New Framework for Comparison
Accreditation is an important aspect of higher education, yet its processes and impacts remain largely opaque to the public. This research project aims to systematically analyze accreditation standards from each of the major US accreditors as well as offer insights into how these criteria influence student success and post-graduation outcomes.
Topics:
Tags:
Research Report
February 12, 2026
Understanding the Impact of Data-Driven Accreditor Practices on Student Outcomes
This paper examines whether the adoption of data-driven practices by the seven former regional accreditors is associated with measurable changes in student outcomes. We document when accreditors introduced four observable practices—public dashboards, public-facing reports, peer benchmarking policies, and internal dashboards—and compare the onset of those practices with resulting changes in student outcomes.
Topics:
Research Report
December 8, 2025
Addressing Re-Engagement and Re-Enrollment Barriers for New Jersey Learners with Some College, No Degree
Data, Policies, and Solutions
Re-engaging and re-enrolling adult learners with some college credit but no degree is an increasing priority nationally and in New Jersey. Credential completion not only enables individuals to access higher paying jobs, but also generates tuition revenue for institutions and supports regional economic development. Recognizing this and the other benefits experienced when students return, New Jersey’s higher education institutions and the Office of the Secretary of Higher Education (OSHE) have made significant investments in re-engaging and re-enrolling stopped out students.
Research Report
December 4, 2025
From Concept to Campus
Lessons from the Design, Launch, and Growth of Transfer Explorer
This report tells the story behind Transfer Explorer—charting its design, pilot, launch, and ongoing improvements—to illuminate the decisions, and partnerships that made it possible and to highlight how Transfer Explorer may be leveraged in the future to improve credit mobility policies and procedures across the country. In doing so, the report is less about the outcomes of Transfer Explorer itself and more on the processes that shaped it.
Topics:
Research Report
November 13, 2025
Exploring Online Enrollment Trends in the Era of State Authorization Reciprocity
By 2020, one in four undergraduates were enrolled in exclusively online programs, double the number enrolled in 2012. The policy landscape concerning online education changed markedly with the establishment of the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA) in 2014. This regulatory change made it easier for institutions to offer online programs to students who reside out of state while completing the program. Using nationally representative survey data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, this report documents who is enrolling in…
Research Report
November 12, 2025
State Uses of IPEDS Data
Insights for Strengthening the National Postsecondary Education Data Infrastructure
In collaboration with the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO), and with support from Lumina Foundation, we explored how state higher education agencies use data from IPEDS, the challenges they encounter, and their perspectives on the future of the federal postsecondary education data collection. In this report, we share our findings from a national survey as well as interviews with 14 SHEEO leaders, including directors and specialists in research, data, and analysis, as well as several senior executives and…
Topics:
Playbook
November 3, 2025
Re-Engaging Adult Learners with Some College but No Credential in Pennsylvania
A Playbook
This playbook is designed to help institutions think about the key strategies and concrete next steps to engage and support adult learners from pre-enrollment through credential completion. It is organized around four areas of impact in the adult learner re-enrollment journey, which guided the year-long Pennsylvania Adult Learner Re-Engagement Community of Practice. Over 50 institutions were represented in the community of practice, including public and private four-year colleges, community colleges, occupational training providers, and more.
Research Report
August 20, 2025
Why Data and Why Now?
The Importance and Challenges of Data for Higher Education in Prison
Alex Monday, Bethany Lewis, Sindy Lopez, Tommaso Bardelli, Elizabeth Davidson Pisacreta, Jessica Pokharel, Ess Pokornowski
Nearly 400 higher education in prison programs now operate across the US, yet basic data about these students at scale—such as enrollment, retention, and completion—is often inaccessible or inconsistent. As these programs expand, strengthening data infrastructure has become both a practical necessity and a moral imperative.
Research Report
August 14, 2025
University Open Source Program Offices
Introduction Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) are dedicated units that coordinate and nurture open source software adoption across the organization. In the past two decades, as companies recognized that open source software “was not just a viable option but a critical path for technology innovation,” OSPOs became relatively common in large corporations, especially in the tech sector.[1] OSPOs are often initially focused on corporate compliance with the terms of open source software the company licensed, but…
Topics:
Research Report
August 13, 2025
The Current State of Academic E-Book Business Models
Access Strategies and Budgeting Realities
This study examines academic monograph publishing in the humanities and social sciences across the United States and Europe to understand how current business models are functioning for their consumer base, namely libraries and authors. Through interviews with librarians, content aggregators, publishers, and authors, we gathered information on a variety of business models (including hybrid, digital, and print models, and those driven by open access imperatives), the needs of academic libraries, and the priorities of authors.
Topics:
Research Report
July 23, 2025
Collecting Additional Data on Students with Disabilities in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)
Benefits and Challenges
In 2024, the National Postsecondary Education Cooperative (NPEC), an advisory group to the National Center for Education Statistics, part of the US Department of Education in 2024 commissioned this report, which we completed in February 2025. The report’s purpose was to assess the feasibility of expanding the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) to capture better information about students with disabilities enrolled in US postsecondary institutions.
Topics:
Research Report
July 16, 2025
Measuring the Economic Value of a Liberal Education
This report offers a nuanced, student-centered perspective on the economic and educational value of a liberal education. Using the Liberal Arts and Sciences Educational Experience (LASEE) Framework and rich, longitudinal student-level data from public colleges and universities, we examined how exposure to core liberal arts features relates to student outcomes.
Research Report
July 1, 2025
How Researchers Use PSEO Data to Study Postsecondary Outcomes and Inform Policy
A report for the PSEO Coalition from Ithaka S+R
This literature review summarizes key findings from research and practical applications related to PSEO data. By examining how PSEO data has been used in higher education research and policy, this review lays the groundwork for a national research agenda that strengthens understanding of the links between education and workforce connections, student success, and the economic value of postsecondary credentials.
Research Report
May 29, 2025
Limited by Design
The Policy Framework of Legal Access in Prison
In this project, we examine the national landscape of access to legal information in prisons, with a particular focus on how law librarians facilitate and mediate that access. Our report aims to shed light on this key group of actors: documenting how law librarians work to support meaningful access to the courts behind bars, how services vary across states, and what barriers limit their ability to assist incarcerated patrons.
Research Report
May 1, 2025
Making AI Generative for Higher Education
Adoption and Challenges Among Instructors and Researchers
This report presents the findings of the interviews that asked faculty to reflect on their perceptions of and experiences with generative AI in both teaching and research. Our study was driven by the following questions: To what degree are faculty adopting generative AI, and how is this changing their approaches and practices in teaching and research? What challenges are they facing in the aftermath of generative AI’s emergence? What support do they still need?…
Research Report
March 31, 2025
Terrain Leveling
Design Strategies for Improving Higher Education in Prisons
Tommaso Bardelli, Sam Johnson, Tammy Ortiz, Elizabeth Austin, Laura Brown, Catharine Bond Hill, Sindy Lopez, Molly McGowan, Amy Mielke, Ess Pokornowski
A growing body of research documents the barriers faced by incarcerated students—such as limited access to technology and conflicts with correctional staff—but far less attention has been paid to the role of the built environment in shaping educational experiences. This project, led by Ennead Lab and Ithaka S+R, examines how spatial, architecture, and design features impact learning inside prisons. It draws on qualitative interviews and site visits to advance both research findings and a portfolio of design interventions.
Research Report
March 27, 2025
Researcher Challenges and Experiences with Data Services
While there is general consensus that institutions should provide a coordinated research data services support infrastructure to their researchers, determining the most effective way to do this has proven more difficult, especially in light of the fast-paced technological changes that have precipitated new forms of research collaborations, methodologies, and discoveries. In this report, we share findings from interviews with researchers that provide information about their data management needs and their current level of engagement with campus data services.
Research Report
March 19, 2025
Meeting the Climate Emergency
University Information Infrastructure for Researching Wicked Problems
Contemporary societies face a range of urgent threats to the well-being of individuals, nations, and the natural world. These high stakes “wicked problems,” as Don Waters calls them in this report, present challenges that are simultaneously scientific, technological, social, and creative. They require expertise from across the disciplines to understand, and equally complex public and political engagement, to overcome. Waters makes the case that America’s research universities are exceptionally well-equipped to address these wicked problems.
Research Report
March 19, 2025
Balancing Access and Accountability
Assessing the Implications of the New Federal Transcript-Hold Regulation for Higher Education - Part 3
This report is the third in a three-part series examining how institutions of higher education have responded to state and federal policies limiting the use of transcript holds for unpaid balances, produced in partnership between Ithaka S+R and AACRAO. The prior reports explored the anticipated and actual impacts of the July 2024 federal regulation limiting transcript holds on higher education institutions in states that did not have existing laws related to the practice.