Data Needed for Improving Productivity Measurement in Higher Education

William F. Massy, Teresa A. Sullivan and Christopher D. Mackie   |   

William Massy is an emeritus professor and former Vice President for Business and Finance at Stanford University, Teresa Sullivan is President of the University of Virginia, and Christopher Mackie is a Study Director with the National Academies’ Committee on National Statistics. This article summarizes the authors’ recent National Research Council report, Improving Measurement of Productivity in Higher Education, which reviews the principles and pitfalls of measuring university productivity and proposes a practical method for doing so at the sector and institutional segment levels. The summary emphasizes the method’s data requirements and describes needed changes in IPEDS and other databases.

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