Improving Higher Education Institutions

The Graduate Certificate Program in Institutional Research provides the formal training institutional researchers need in an era of increased federal and state reporting requirements, legal mandates, extensive use of “data mining,” and pressure for accountability. The number of Institutional Research Offices on campuses is expanding with even the smallest institution needing a trained academic as an institutional researcher. This program was designed with support from the Association for Institutional Research (AIR) and the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES). It meets the set of knowledge, skills, and abilities identified by AIR for institutional researchers. The UM-St. Louis campus collaborates with the UM campuses in Columbia and Kansas City and with the UM System Office in delivering this program.

This program is intended to be a post-Master’s degree program. It consists of an 1 8-hour program of study including courses in research methods, institutional research issues, higher education management, and a capstone course. The courses are delivered through a variety of methods. Students can engage in part-time or full-time study for the certificate. In addition to students from higher education, we encourage doctoral students from related areas in the social sciences to take all or part of the certificate.