Preliminary Material / Maria Eliophotou Menon , Dawn Geronimo Terkla and Paul Gibbs -- Introduction / Maria Eliophotou Menon -- Informing or Distracting? Guiding or Driving? The Use of Performance Indicators in Higher Education / John Taylor -- Opportunities and Barriers to Effective Planning in Higher Education / Richard A. Voorhees and John D. Cooper -- Using Data to Inform Institutional Decision Making at Tufts University / Dawn Geronimo Terkla , Jessica Sharkness , Lauren M. Conoscenti and Christina Butler -- Student Feedback on the Experience of Higher Education / James Williams -- Higher Education Brands and Data / Chris Chapleo and Peter Reader -- Evaluating Students’ Quality of Academic Life / Eugénia Pedro , Helena Alves and João Leitão -- The Returns to Investment in Higher Education / George Psacharopoulos -- Investigating Students’ Expectations of the Economic Returns to Higher Education / Maria Eliophotou Menon -- Determinants of the Gender Gap in Annual Earnings among College Graduates / Marilou Ioakimidis and Joop Hartog -- Higher Education and Equality of Opportunity / Sofia N. Andreou and Christos Koutsampelas -- Student Data Privacy and Institutional Accountability in an Age of Surveillance / Paul Prinsloo and Sharon Slade -- Privacy, Analytics and Marketing Higher Education / Paul Gibbs -- Using Data and Experts to Make the Wrong Decision / Ian R. Dobson -- Conclusions and Policy Implications / Paul Gibbs -- Contributors / Maria Eliophotou Menon , Dawn Geronimo Terkla and Paul Gibbs -- Index / Maria Eliophotou Menon , Dawn Geronimo Terkla and Paul Gibbs -- Global Perspectives on Higher Education / Maria Eliophotou Menon , Dawn Geronimo Terkla and Paul Gibbs.

In recent decades, higher education systems and institutions have been called to respond to an unprecedented number of challenges. Major challenges emerged with the phenomenal increase in the demand for higher education and the associated massive expansion of higher education systems. In response universities were called to adopt planning and research methods that would enable them to identify and address the needs of a larger, more diverse student body. Higher education institutions began to place greater emphasis on planning and marketing, seeking to maintain their position in an increasingly competitive higher education market. Under the current economic downturn, universities are under pressure to further cut costs while maintaining their attractiveness to prospective students. As a result educational policy makers and administrators are called to select the ‘right’ alternatives, aiming for both efficiency and effectiveness in delivered outcomes. This book provides insights into the use of data as an input in planning and improvement initiatives in higher education. It focuses on uses (and potential abuses) of data in educational planning and policy formulation, examining several practices and perspectives relating to different types of data. The book is intended to address the need for the collection and utilization of data in the attempt to improve higher education both at the systemic and the institutional level.

Description based on print version record.