A Carefully Conceived Vision for the Future While WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World is an innovative process for the future, a well-developed and clear understanding of where WT fits within the current educational landscape is important. To this end, three distinct groups of “peer” institutions have been identified that help position WT in 2017-2018 as we seek to define what we intend to become by 2035.
peer institution groups
GEOGRAPHIC PEERS This set of peers includes both Master’s and Doctoral institutions that are similar to WT in many ways, including geographically.
COMPARISON PEERS
ASPIRANT PEERS This group is key to the strategic plan, as Aspirant Peers are models for WT’s intention to achieve Doctoral status in the future.
This group represents institutions currently similar to WT and is comprised of Master’s
Colleges and Universities.
HOW DO WE COMPARE The Office of Institutional Effectiveness, Data and Analytics at WT conducted a months-long analytical study to identify which institutions should be considered for inclusion in the comparative peer groups. The primary data source for this analysis was the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). 11 IPEDS, which is updated annually, includes data for more than 7,000 institutions and is the de facto data source for inter-institutional comparisons. An initial IPEDS query of data from the 2014-2015 academic year resulted in a data set that included 373 institutions and 215 variables
for consideration in the peer analysis. The first phase of data analysis reduced the sample to 215 institutions and 99 variables that were included in subsequent analyses. These variables represented many aspects of the University, including admissions, student completions, enrollment, faculty and staff, financial information, institutional characteristics and student success. Even though more than 80 variables were included in analyzing institutional peers, one of the primary factors considered in creating the peer groups was the current Carnegie Classification of each institution. These Carnegie designations are reflected in the descriptions of each these groups.
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