The Office of Institutional Research and Assessment (OIRA) is a unit of the division of Academic Affairs, which provides leadership for continuous improvement in academic operations to support our journey to become a top-tier public research university.
OIRA impacts the university’s VolVision strategic plan by helping lead the shift to a culture of assessment and accountability, and by providing reliable data systems and reporting for evidence-based decision-making.
OIRA’s mission is to provide accurate and reliable data to university administrators, departments, and faculty to illuminate and inform their decision-making. OIRA also supplies a variety of information for federal and state mandated reporting (including accreditation), and for college guides and other external publications.
Our vision is to be the most trusted university provider of data for evidence-based decision-making.
Our key values are quality, integrity, leadership, and service.
OIRA impacts campus culture through our relationships with other units and key administrators, our knowledge of campus data and assessment needs, and our role in data governance. Our responsibilities in ensuring accurate and timely data and reports for decision-making are broad in scope and rely on partnerships across campus, accessible and complete data sources, and a full and well-trained staff.
Three Strategic Priorities
OIRA’s 2018-2022 strategic priorities are impacting campus culture, data and reporting, and office effectiveness.
Impacting Campus Culture Goals
- Support campus culture of evidence-based decision-making
- Co-lead the implementation of data governance, and work closely with data stewards to ensure completeness and accuracy and help them understand how data is used in reporting.
- Maintain the partnership with Teaching and Learning Innovation and the Office of Accreditation in promoting and leading the culture of academic assessment.
- Support for VolVision Strategic Plan and Journey to the Top Initiative, especially those goals related to improving student success, retention, and graduation.
Data and Reporting Goals
- Partnership with the Office of Information Technology and campus data owners to expand the university’s data warehouse, including finalizing the recreation of the university’s official/historical datasets.
- Expand self-service reporting (primarily through SAS Visual Analytics) and provide assistance to colleges and units as they create their own reports from the data warehouse.
- Conduct analytical studies to assist decision-makers (IR and Assessment).
- Partnerships with Student Life, Student Success, and other units to collect additional data in order to assist with understanding student’s experiences.
- Enhance our role as Data Administrator for the Planning/Assessment module in Campus Labs.
- Continue to support THEC Quality Assurance Funding requirements, and UT System and Board of Trustees data and information needs.
Office Effectiveness Goals
- Refresh OIRA website in the university template.
- Conduct periodic OIRA retreat.
- Staff cross-training and professional development.