Institutional Effectiveness and Assessment

What We Do

Institutional Effectiveness and Assessment serves as a strategic partner across the university, helping to transform data into meaningful information that advances strategic decision-making, sustainable quality improvement, and renewal at all levels of the institution.

The office supports the university in a variety of endeavors, including:

• Strategic planning
• Accreditation
• Gathering and coordinating official data for compliance reports, college guides, and other external reporting
• Compiling and analyzing data for internal stakeholders to inform decision-making by administrators, colleges, departments, and committees

Institutional Research

The purpose of the Office of Institutional Research is to provide data that supports Niagara’s institutional planning, policy formation, decision-making and effectiveness. The office serves as the institution’s primary source for data required for federal and state agencies as well as external surveys.

Institutional Research supports:

• Compliance with regulatory requirements.
• Analytical decision-making to support Niagara’s mission and strategic plan.
• Dissemination of information regarding the university environment.
• Promoting Niagara’s students, faculty, academic programs, and campus life through profile reports.

How do we do it?

• Standardizing data definitions and collection protocols.
• Overseeing the accuracy and validity of university data.
• Centralizing data collection.
• Synthesizing data from across campus.
• Generating federal and state regulatory reports.
• Providing information to external profiling agencies (e.g., U.S. News & World Report, Princeton Review).
• Producing internal reports for administration, faculty and staff.
• Providing current and timely reports to inform key decisions.