Institutional Performance Survey (IPS)
Why should you consider IPS?
In today's rapidly changing educational environment, wise campus leaders monitor the pulse of their institution. They know its strengths and weaknesses in advance so that they can take appropriate action. NCHEMS developed its Institutional Performance Survey (IPS), available in both two and four-year versions, to provide useful and timely information about your institution's performance and to help you develop strategies for improvement.
IPS is carefully researched. NCHEMS Institutional Performance Survey (IPS) is the by-product of a national research study intended to assess how various institutional conditions were related to an institution's external environment, strategic competence, and effectiveness. IPS has proven to be a highly reliable and theoretically sound assessment tool. Extensive empirical research and a large data base, including responses from more than 4,000 individuals at over 300 institutions, ensure that IPS has been designed to accurately reflect the dynamics of your institution and the perceptions that its members hold.
IPS is comprehensive. Over 100 items are included to measure eight dimensions relating to institutional performance. Key topics include:
Institutional Effectiveness
Does the performance of your institution match its goals and mission? Are the right opportunities for educational experience and career development being provided to students, faculty, and administrators? Assessments of institutional effectiveness ask not merely whether you are doing things right, but whether you are doing the right things.
Leadership and Decision Styles
As a key policymaker, you know how decisions get made. But how do trustees, administrators, and faculty view the process? Is resource allocation at your institution seen as simply a matter of coincidence, the prerogative of one individual, or a team effort? Assessments of leadership and decision styles ask members of the institutional community not merely whether things get done, but how they perceive that things get done.
Institutional Culture
How well does your institution's leadership and operation match its culture? Are policy decisions taking place too quickly, too slowly, or with sufficient and appropriate input? Assessments of institutional culture allow you to compare perceptions of leadership qualities with their perceived organizational consequences.
Institutional Environment
How strongly are outside factors affecting policy decisions? Is competition from other institutions perceived to be on the upswing? Are student tastes and preferences becoming less predictable? Assessments of institutional environment help top administrators obtain the information they need for monitoring trends and directing change positively.
IPS is convenient. All IPS services are available in one comprehensive package which includes instruments (with return prepaid postage), analyses and a report summary with graphic displays and statistical distributions of your results.
IPS is cost-effective. Because it is a proven instrument, IPS offers substantial savings over individually designed surveys. Indeed, the cost of designing and conducting your own survey would far exceed that of IPS. Bear in mind, too, that IPS can be repeated in future years. It offers a baseline so that you can accurately chart your progress in institutional performance over several years.
IPS is useful for self-study. IPS can focus campus-wide discussion on a variety of issues relating to institutional performance and effectiveness. Indeed, we suggest that you consider using IPS as the centerpiece for institutional self-study. Not only does IPS raise important issues itself, it also provides a framework within which to focus discussions of more specific points.
IPS can help you market your institution. Many administrators frequently find it difficult to describe their campus to prospective employees, the community and even to prospective students. With the IPS, it will be possible to comprehensively describe your campus and to develop a market strategy which adequately reflects your institution. You will have supportive data to target marketing efforts for mutually beneficial results.
IPS is well targeted. IPS is designed to target a number of very specific groups within your institution so that you know how each feels about critical concerns. Those polled include several different groups of faculty (such as Business and Management, Education, Fine Arts and Humanities, Law and Natural Sciences) along with top and middle administrators, and trustees/board members. The results of each survey item are presented in aggregate form for each of the targeted populations.
IPS can be individually tailored. Because every institution is unique, the IPS assessment instrument can be augmented with a section in which you ask specific questions that reflect the current interests and needs of your institution. At no extra charge, you can add as many as 20 additional questions which will be analyzed along with the rest of the instrument.
IPS assures confidentiality. All respondents mail their completed IPS Assessment instruments directly to NCHEMS. All analyses are completed by NCHEMS staff who have no access to respondents' identity. Responses are provided in aggregate form for each of the target populations. A total campus response and a total faculty response are provided as benchmarks from which the targeted populations can be compared. NCHEMS will retain all completed IPS instruments; however, each institution will receive a report summary which presents aggregate results.
IPS results are clearly presented. Each item on the instrument is analyzed with mean scores from each of the targeted populations. The report summary includes easy to follow instructions on how to read and interpret your results.
Sample of IPS survey questions:
- There is a general sense that this institution has a distinctive purpose to fulfill.
- Our institution tends to do more of what it does well, to expand in areas where we have expertise.
- Persuasion, negotiation, and coalition-building are examples of what determines resource allocation.
- How many faculty members at this institution are now actively engaged in professional development activities -- e.g., doing research, getting an advanced degree, consulting, etc.?
What are the costs?
Costs for an IPS assessment package include all instruments, standard analyses, and a report summary. You can order an IPS package for as little as $1,600 for 100 questionnaires. After the first 100, you may order instruments in quantities of 50 at an additional $150.00 per set of 50 instruments.
IPS Questionnaires (sample set) are $1.50 each.
Note that bulk IPS Questionnaires may not be purchased without the Analysis Service.
| Catalog Number - 2 year | Catalog Number - 4 year | |
| IPS Questionnaire (Sample Set) | 2YR-IPS | 4YR-IPS |