The Office of Institutional Research and Strategic Analysis (IRSA) is the official data hub for the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. IRSA is committed to providing accurate and timely data to the campus community. IRSA also collaborates with other offices and stakeholders on campus to meet state and federal reporting guidelines and support the decision-making process.

Live data are updated in real-time, typically daily. Frozen data, also called census data, are a snapshot of the data on the day they were captured. Frozen data are static and do not change.

Examples of frozen data include census data that capture enrollment, retention & graduation rates, and degrees & certificates awarded. Frozen data are used for longitudinal reporting where point-in-time or trend analysis is needed. Mandated reporting, included federal (IPEDS), state (THEC), and institutional (UT System), uses frozen data.

Examples of live data include the number of students enrolled in a course on any given day. This number is subject to change from day to day. It is used for daily operations when having the most current data is essential.

The census date is when official data are captured and “frozen.” There are two “freeze events” each Fall and Spring semester – the 14th Day and End of Term. During the summer semester, there is one freeze event, which occurs at the End of Term.

Enrollment and retention data in IRSA’s reporting dashboards are updated shortly after the 14-Day census date. Degree and other outcomes data are updated shortly after the end of term freeze, which typically occurs three weeks after the last day of an academic term. Check the News & Events page on the IRSA website for information on the latest updates to our dashboards.

Note: This schedule applies to data published through IRSA dashboards and reporting products. Other university systems, dashboards, and operational reports may have different refresh schedules and may use live rather than frozen data. Users should confirm whether they need current (live) data or official census (frozen) data for their reporting needs.

The Fall 14-Day census is the university’s official enrollment snapshot and is used for federal reporting (IPEDS), external surveys such as U.S. News & World Report, reporting to the University of Tennessee System and Board of Trustees, and institutional planning, analysis, and decision-making activities.

Numbers can vary for several reasons:

• Different assumptions. For example, you include audit hours, but I excluded them.
• Different data sources. For example, you’re looking at live data and I’m looking at frozen data (see live versus frozen data for more information)
• Different systems. For example, some university systems use different business rules, reporting definitions, or update schedules.

The Fact Book and Dashboards contain publicly available data and should be the first stop for various data items.

Yes, the current edition of the Fact Book can be found here. Prior editions of the Fact Book are maintained through our Reporting Archives.

Anyone can request assistance from IRSA! If your college or department has an internal data unit, we encourage you to work with them first, as they may already have access to the information you need.

If you are unsure where to start, have questions about available data, or need help defining your request, contact us. We are happy to help you determine the best approach.

Project requests can be submitted to our team via the Data Requests form on Data Central.

Yes! As part of the university’s data governance initiative, IRSA hosts the Data Users Group, or DUG.

DUG is a dedicated group of data practitioners from across campus that meet monthly to discuss data challenges, share successes, and showcase innovative solutions, all with the goal of fostering a space for collaboration.

If you are interested in joining the Data Users Group, please fill out our interest form.

The University of Tennessee Board of Trustees periodically approves a list of aspirational and comparative peers for each member institution of the University of Tennessee System. The current peer list of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville can be found here.

“The Common Data Set (CDS) initiative is a collaborative effort among data providers in the higher education community and publishers as represented by the College Board, Peterson’s, and U.S. News & World Report. The combined goal of this collaboration is to improve the quality and accuracy of information provided to all involved in a student’s transition into higher education, as well as to reduce the reporting burden on data providers.” – Common Data Set

UTK’s current edition of the Common Data Set is available on the IRSA website. Prior editions of the Common Data Set are maintained through our Reporting Archives.

The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, or IPEDS, is the data system that U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) uses to conduct surveys and collect data. Completion is mandatory for institutions participating in the Title IV funding.

For more information, visit the National Center for Education Statistics website.

At UTK, data governance is a collaborative partnership between academic and administrative offices, data stewards, and university leadership that creates shared accountability for institutional data. The initiative’s purpose is not simply to control data, but to enable confident decision-making, reduce conflicting metrics, improve transparency, protect sensitive information, and ensure that data can be used effectively across campus units.

Data Cookbook is UTK’s enterprise metadata repository and the university’s central source for institutional data definitions and documentation. It contains definitions for reporting terms, data elements, metrics, key performance indicators, and institutional calculations used across campus, and provides information about data available from systems such as Banner, DASH, and other UTK reporting environments.

All UTK employees can request access by emailing [email protected]. Once granted access, visit utk.datacookbook.com and sign in with your UTK NetID and password.