About Us

Institutional Research collects, analyzes, and interprets a wide variety of data about the university and its external environment in order to:

• assess institutional outcomes
• enable institutional reporting
• measure institutional performance against strategic planning goals
• perform comparative benchmarking
• analyse key performance indicators
• perform comparative analyses with peer institutions
• report to campus constituencies and external agencies.

Institutional Research enables informed decision-making, informed planning, and informed reviews to enhance excellence in UC Irvine’s teaching, research, and service.

Assessment (formerly CAAR – Center for Assessment and Applied Research), supports faculty and campus leaders by utilizing best practices to conduct assessments that enhance student learning and support student success. Moreover, they carry out applied research on all aspects of the student experience.

It supports campus leaders with:

• assessment and survey design
• student learning outcome development
• program and policy evaluation
• systematic inquiry, evidence-based decision-making
• assessment data that inform continuous improvement of undergraduate and graduate education
• statistical analyses

Most of our projects are collaborative, involving faculty, staff, and administrators. We value building shared responsibility for student success.

Institutional Planning provides guidance and support to campus units in the following areas: 

• accreditation
• academic program planning and development
• academic program reviews
• academic program administration
• educational policies
• strategic planning initiatives
• student outcomes
• supporting new campus research initiatives