SAS customers share enrollment management, institutional research successes at AIR forum

Business intelligence supports degree tracking, student success, early warning systems

CARY, NC - Student enrollment and retention are the lifeblood of higher education institutions. Ensuring those students earn degrees in an appropriate timeframe keeps it flowing. Two customers discuss how they use SAS® software for institutional research to tackle these critical challenges at this week’s Association for Institutional Research (AIR) annual forum in Toronto.

In separate presentations, university representatives will discuss how implementing a reporting data warehouse has expanded reporting capabilities, through UCF’s use of the SAS® Enterprise Intelligence Suite for Education. Supported by SAS Business Intelligence and SAS Data Management servers, a UCF information delivery portal provides secure, campus wide access to multi-dimensional, detailed enrollment reports on current and historical enrollment trends.

Demonstrating institutional and student success requires degree data. How many were awarded, the breakdown by college or department, the diversity of degree recipients, number of minors or certificates awarded, etc. In the second presentation, members of UCF’s Institutional Knowledge Management office will show how they converted legacy, static degree data into a graphic-based, trend-focused degree application that answers these critical questions and more.

Institutional research and technology experts from Western Kentucky University will present their Kentucky AIR Best Paper award winner on the university’s early-warning system for enrollment, persistence and student success. In a separate presentation, they will share best practices and lessons learned before, throughout and after last year’s successful launch of a business intelligence portal.

“These two universities are mastering the use of data to help meet their most important missions: enroll quality students and ensure their success,” said Armistead Sapp, head of the SAS Education Practice. “We’ve learned so much working with UCF and WKU over the years. Session attendees will not be disappointed.”

In addition, a SAS analytics expert will discuss supporting institutional research through analytics, including how to seamlessly integrate data across multiple platforms, provide insightful reporting and utilize the power of analytics. Attendees will learn how data can be surfaced in dashboards with drillable reports, and how analytics can predict trends, enabling proactive decision making.

With more than 3,000 college, university and business school customers in 126 countries and education specialists on every continent, SAS serves higher education by delivering software solutions, strategic services and academic programs that spark innovation and expand educational opportunities.

About SAS
SAS is the leader in business analytics software and services, and the largest independent vendor in the business intelligence market. Through innovative solutions delivered within an integrated framework, SAS helps customers at more than 50,000 sites improve performance and deliver value by making better decisions faster. Since 1976 SAS has been giving customers around the world The Power to Know® .