June 1 -- The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) invites comments to OMB by July 1, 2022 on its proposal for the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) data collections for 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25. NCES proposes to make changes to the IPEDS data collection components, clarify definitions and instructions throughout the components, and to continue the IPEDS collection of postsecondary data over the next three years.
IPEDS is a web-based data collection system designed to collect basic data from all postsecondary institutions in the United States and the other jurisdictions. IPEDS enables NCES to report on key dimensions of postsecondary education such as enrollments, degrees and other awards earned, tuition and fees, average net price, student financial aid, graduation rates, student outcomes, revenues and expenditures, faculty salaries, and staff employed.
The IPEDS web-based data collection system was implemented in 2000-01. In 2020-21, IPEDS collected data from 6,063 postsecondary institutions in the United States and the other jurisdictions that are eligible to participate in Title IV Federal financial aid programs. All Title IV institutions are required to respond to IPEDS (Section 490 of the Higher Education Amendments of 1992 [Pub. L. 102-325]). IPEDS allows other (non-title IV) institutions to participate on a voluntary basis; approximately 300 non-title IV institutions elect to respond each year. Institution closures and mergers have led to a decrease in the number of institutions in the IPEDS universe over the past few years. Due to these fluctuations, combined with the addition of new institutions, NCES uses rounded estimates for the number of institutions in the respondent burden calculations for the upcoming years (estimated 6,100 Title IV institutions plus 300 non-title IV institutions for a total of 6,400 institutions estimated to submit IPEDS data during the 2022-23 through 2024-25 IPEDS data collections). IPEDS data are available to the public through the College Navigator and IPEDS Data Center websites.
IPEDS provides NCES with the basic data needed to describe the size of the postsecondary enterprise in terms of students enrolled, staff employed, dollars expended, and degrees earned. The IPEDS universe also provides the institutional sampling frame used in most other postsecondary surveys such as the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS). Each of these surveys uses the IPEDS institutional universe for its first stage sample and relies on IPEDS data on enrollment, completions, or staff to weight its second stage sample.
NCES seeks authorization from OMB to make a change to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) data collection. Current authorization expires August 31, 2022 (OMB# 1850-0582 v.24-29). NCES is requesting a new clearance for the 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25 data collections to enable us to make changes to the IPEDS data collection components, clarify definitions and instructions throughout the components, and to continue the IPEDS collection of postsecondary data over the next three years. This clearance package includes a number of proposed changes to the data collection. As part of the public comment period review, NCES requests that IPEDS data submitters and other stakeholders respond to the directed questions found in Appendix D of this submission.
Of note, NCES proposes that IPEDS add the collection of data on noncredit education. It does so in response to TRP #62: Capturing Noncredit Enrollment and Activity in the IPEDS Surveys
https://edsurveys.rti.org/IPEDS_TRP_DOCS/prod/documents/TRP62_Summary.pdf
IPEDS website:
https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/
IPEDS submission to OMB:
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=202202-1850-008 Click IC List for data collection instruments, View Supporting Statement for technical documentation. Submit comments through this site.
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2022-11712
For AEA members wishing to submit comments to OMB, the AEA Committee on Economic Statistics offers "A Primer on How to Respond to Calls for Comment on Federal Data Collections" at
https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=5806