AAUDE 2022: IR Professionals on Using Benchmarking Data and Other Topics

AAUDE (Association of American Universities Data Exchange) is one of those conferences where nearly everyone knows everyone and long-time friends and colleagues gather to learn and connect. With this being the first in person conference in 3 years for many attendees, AAUDE 2022 was a great time for this tight knit group to share data and best practices after considerable time apart. 

Presentation topics were extremely relevant to the current higher ed landscape and many provided actionable information for IR professions to replicate at their own institutions. Here are a few:

• Advancing Diversity & Inclusion on Campus: Approaches & Considerations
• Leveraging Big Data to Promote Institutional Strengths and Plan for the Future
• Accreditation: Value vs. Burden
• IR Lifehacks for Remote Work
• Approaches to Survey Governance

The first topic, Advancing Diversity & Inclusion on Campus, was presented by Robert Stubbs, Director of Institutional Research at The University of Colorado (CU) Boulder along with Ranjani Kirtane, Director of Research at HelioCampus. Together, they described how CU Boulder was able to use insights from benchmarking data to help advance diversity and inclusion on campus. This session considered questions like:

• How are university leaders assessing where to make investments on their campus, and how are they evaluating the return on those investments?  
• What are some learnings that universities can share about best practices for developing and implementing diversity and inclusion initiatives?

If you missed this session but are interested in learning more about how other colleges and universities are using benchmarking data to maximize resources to align with strategic plans, drive better student outcomes and fulfill their mission, you can check out a great case study from Oregon State.

Overall, it was great to be back connecting with folks in real life and I am already looking forward to next year. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to reach out to the HelioCampus team if you would like to learn more about how we can help your institution to measure and evaluate your effectiveness in fulfilling your mission but connecting investments with financial and student learning outcomes.