Director, Institutional Analysis, University of Nevada, USA
Serge chose to be interviewed in chair #19.
1. What is your job title?
Director, Institutional Analysis at the University of Nevada in Reno, USA.
2. Briefly, how would you describe your role in terms of your place in your institution?
I am the chief institutional research officer. I support our central administration with descriptive and inferential analysis, including predictive analytics and statistical modelling to optimise institutional operations and maximise student and faculty outcomes.
3. From your perspective, what are the emerging areas of interest in institutional research?
I think the effective management of the evolving ‘big data’ environment is certainly an area of emerging interest, and this includes forging business processes to support comprehensive data integration, analysis, and reporting.
4. What do you believe will be the future priorities for institutional research?
If we could move the institutional research focus from producing descriptive retrospective data products to producing predictive and prescriptive analyses and reporting, we would be able to more effectively support institutional decision-making and better inform consumer choices. An example of this can be seen in the College ROI value-added interactive assessment report.
5. Complete this statement: In my role, I can’t operate effectively without …
… an institution-wide focus on collaborative data management, integration and reporting, and a campus culture that embraces data-informed discourse and decision-making inspired by a desire for self-improvement, not just compliance.
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