The mission of the Higher Education Research Institute is to inform educational policy and promote institutional improvement through an increased understanding of higher education and its impact on college students.

We accomplish this mission by:

  • working in cooperation with institutions of higher education
  • producing and disseminating original research
  • providing the tools and resources to utilize research at the institutional level
  • training researchers to advance institutional assessment and scholarship in higher education
  • developing partnerships with higher education organizations to promote institutional excellence

Our research model focuses on longitudinal research, which is the best way we know to assess change.

We seek to disseminate our research through professional journal publications, books, workshops, and conference presentations.

We also assist colleges and universities in using both our research findings and their own institutional data to foster institutional understanding and improvement.