Benchmarking Service FAQ
Who can subscribe?
The service is available only to AGB member-institutions.
How do I subscribe?
Fill in the information on this pdf and fax it back to us, or call 202/776-0823 for a printed brochure or for information about membership in AGB. Member institutions may subscribe for $815 annually. You'll be asked to provide credit-card information (VISA, MasterCard, American Express) and the name and e-mail address for one of the users. Each subscription /leg/includes five users; five additional users may be added for $250. Once the institution's account is activated, AGB will send you a confirmation notice by e-mail, along with log in instructions and a password. To add additional users (more than the initial five), send an e-mail to benchmarking@agb.org; your account will be upgraded, and you will be sent an invoice. All users have the same anniversary date for renewal of the institution's subscription.
How current will the data be?
Most IPEDS data are about 12 to 18 months old. AGB adds data to its service from each IPEDS survey as soon as the information is released.
Is this just for beginners, like IR 101?
The AGB Benchmarking Service is easy to use, but experienced researchers will find it's a time saver and will use its analytical tools in more complex ways. For example, CFOs will want to explore options that let them build their own financial indicators with Custom Variables and create their own slide shows on finance. Or they'll add a per student or per faculty and staff divisor to common variables.
What kind of help or tech support will I have?
Subscribers have an array of online support services at their disposal.
- IPEDS survey data arranged in families
- Free periodic newsletters detailing new data
- Instant access to predesigned Quick Reports
- Ongoing site improvements and changes
The User's Guide (pdf, 1.2 MB) provides an introduction for new users of the AGB's Benchmarking Service, describes various features, and helps you get started. There are also details about data sources and online tools (pdf, 112 KB) used for the Benchmarking Service.
All AGB Benchmarking Service users receive periodic emails about new data, site improvements and changes, tips, and professional development opportunities.
How can I create a peer group?
You can create your own peer group by choosing a set of institutions, using Create a Group from Scratch. Or you can use the New Group Wizard to create a group using a few selected characteristics such as enrollment, state, budget size, Carnegie classification, and public or private control. For example, you could click a few buttons and create a group of private, specialized art institutions, with enrollments over 500, in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. Or you could pick ten institutions by name, give the group a title, and you're done. You can create as many comparison groups as you need, of virtually any size. After you save a group, it's available for your use whenever you log in.
Will I be limited to selecting peers who are also subscribers, or will I have my choice of peers?
You can choose your peers from among all nonprofit, degree-granting, private and public colleges and universities in the United States--more than 4,000 institutions.
What is the difference between AGB's service and the online service through the U.S. Department of Education?
Unlike the government's service, AGB's is graphic, fast, and easy to use. You can even print tables and charts in color right from the Web. Better yet, AGB's service also provides templates for reports and helps you create your own "slide show" presentations using the indicators and peer institutions of your choice. AGB's service only includes the data and variables that are most frequently used by institutional researchers for more than 3,000 degree-granting, nonprofit, private and public colleges and universities. We have excluded about 3,500 proprietary schools (which IPEDS includes) to make the service faster and easier to use.
How will I know what the data represent?
The service has a built-in data dictionary. You can click on a variable name as you use the service, and a window will appear with a definition of the variable and source of the data. If the indicator is a ratio, the definition will include an explanation of how it was constructed.
Will I have to load data for my institution to use the service?
No data entry or loading is required. The service features more than five years of data from IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System), the most comprehensive database on U.S. higher education, for all public and private, nonprofit, degree-granting institutions in the United States.
Will this service address all of my information needs?
The service includes data available from IPEDS and selected other sources, but it cannot answer all of your information needs. Data on student-learning outcomes or alumni, for example, are especially difficult to obtain or are confidential. Because the service focuses on the institution as the unit of analysis, deans and department heads will need to track other data for program-level analysis, though some student and faculty variables can be sorted by CIP codes (Classification of Instructional Program). And researchers who use all the IPEDS variables or include proprietary institutions in their work will still need to use the site run by the Department of Education.
