Institutional Research FAQ and Definitions

(Definitions apply only to IR Cubes, IR Data Warehouse, and IR Fact Book)

Frequently Asked Questions:

What does Institutional Research (IR) do?

Mission Statement

• The mission of the office of Institutional Research is to facilitate institutional planning and decision making by providing university administration, staff, and faculty with strategic data.
• The department of Institutional Research provides precise statistical information to all units of the university, regulators, and others; designs, develops, and implements strategies and techniques to research, assess, and improve effectiveness.
• One of our many functions is to provide official data to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), University Administrators, Accrediting Agencies, Government Agencies, and the General Public.

What is Official data?

• Every semester, Institutional Research extracts data from Banner on the official census date. These extracted files are ‘frozen' and become the uncertified official enrollment files that are used for all reporting.
• Data that is submitted to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating board does not always exactly match the official data in our extracted files. Sometimes THECB rules prevent us from reporting certain students to the THECB. The data submitted to the THECB is considered ‘certified.'

Why does IR's Official number differ from what I just ran using a COGNOS ‘Student' Folder report?

• COGNOS Student Folder reports (the old Tech Reports) run on current data in BANNER which changes daily. IR's numbers are based on the official ‘frozen or static' extracted files as of the census date and do not change.

Which number should I use, the current data from COGNOS or the Official IR frozen/static data?

• The answer to this question depends upon what you are trying to report.
• For most reporting to government agencies or other entities that require official enrollment, use the IR frozen/static files (IR Fact Book, IR Data Warehouse, or IR CUBES).
• If you need to know how many students will be graduating in May, or current enrollment in a class, use the COGNOS current data.

 

Definitions:

BE SURE TO CHECK THE DEFINITION OF THE SOURCE DOCUMENT BEFORE MAKING YOUR DECISION.

• IR Fact Book: All reports are based on official ‘frozen' IR data files.
• IR Data Warehouse Reports: All reports are based on official ‘frozen' IR data files except for Weighted Credit Hours (WSCH) which are based on ‘Certified' data.
• IR CUBES:All reports are based on official ‘frozen' IR data files except for Weighted Credit Hours (WSCH) which are based on ‘Certified' data.

Reports Available in IR CUBES:

T_IR_ST_Course_Registration_CUBE: Semester Student Credit Hours Taught/Course Registrations by Academic Area, Fiscal Year, Course Level, College, Department, Subject, and Term. Based on Official IR Data.

T_IR_ST_Degrees CUBE: All Degrees and Certificates granted by College, Department, Program, Major, Student Level, Award Category, Type of Award Granted, Gender, Ethnicity, and Citizenship. Degrees are extracted at the end of each semester and updated at the end of each fiscal year.

T IR ST Enrollment CUBE: Contains Enrollment by College, Department, Program, Major, Student Level, Student Classification, Student Population, Ethnicity, Full/Part-time Status, Gender and Home for pre-defined student populations.

T IR ST RetGrad CUBE: Retention/Graduation Rates by College, Department, Program, Major, Student Level, Student Population (New or Transfer), Ethnicity, Full/Part-Time Status, Gender, and Home of student within the University, College, or Department. Uses the New Student or New Transfer Cohort (FTIC) Count in all queries.

• Retention: Tracks New Freshmen/New Transfer students from fall-to-fall to see if they are stilled enrolled.Uses the entering term cohort (FTIC) count of the specific group.
• Graduation Rates: Tracks New Freshmen/New Transfer students from their entering term over a period of years to determine if they graduated, and how long it took them to complete their degree. Uses the entering term cohort (FTIC) count of the specific group.
• Cohort - First Time in College (FTIC): The official total count of full-time degree seeking New Freshmen from High School/New Transfer students that are enrolled at TTU in summer/fall of a specific term.

T IR ST WSCH CUBE: Weighted Credit Hours by College, Fiscal Year, Formula Funding Classification by Division (Total, Upper, Lower, Masters, Doctoral, Law). Based on certified data and used for formula funding.

CAUTION: WHEN USING IR CUBES, BE SURE TO VERIFY THE OVERALL TOTALS WITH ANOTHER SOURCE (i.e. IR FACT BOOK) TO MAKE SURE YOU ARE GETTING THE DATA YOU EXPECTED. DOES THE COUNT LOOK REASONABLE?

For example: In CUBES you write a query to pull all undergraduate enrollment for the college of Arts & Sciences by department for Fall 2012. The query returns a total of 9,569 but the IR Fact Book shows 8,357. What is the difference? The query does not include the ‘undergraduate' enrollment filter and has returned the Total Enrollment for Arts & Sciences for Fall 2012.

 

IR CATEGORY DEFINITIONS
(These definitions apply only to IR Data Warehouse, IR Fact Book, and IR Cubes)

 

IR DATA SOURCE GUIDE

 

Helpful Links:

• Institutional Research: http://www.depts.ttu.edu/irim/
• IR DATA Warehouse (Post Banner): https://cognos.texastech.edu/
• IR Fact Book: http://techdata.irs.ttu.edu/Factbook/
• IR Trends:  http://techdata.irs.ttu.edu/Trends/
• IR Online Request Forms: http://techdata.irs.ttu.edu/OnlineRequestForms/RequestForms.aspx

COGNOS Supports the following web browsers:

• Apple Safari: 5.0
• Apple Safari on iOS: 5.x, 6.x, 7.x
• Blackberry Playbook Browser: 1.0, 2.0
• Google Chrome: 32
• Google Chrome for Android: 26
• Microsoft Internet Explorer: 7.0, 8.0, 9.0, 10, 11
• Mozilla Firefox: ESR 17.0, ESR 24

For Troubleshooting Cognos: https://www.depts.ttu.edu/dmfr/resources/index.php

Contact Information:

Institutional Research
MS 2017
Texas Tech Plaza, Suite 401
806-742-2166 (main office)