Intriguing Facets of Institution Research

INTRODUCTION The higher education landscape, all over the world, is in constant flux. A changing external and internal environment is not a new phenomenon in higher education but is an inherent characteristic of the higher education system over centuries. The Association for Institutional Research (AIR) was established in the United States of America in 1959. The relevant burning issues confronting higher education institutions in the USA at that point in time, and which gave rise to the need for the establishment of such an association, fell under the following main categories which were included in the program of the very first AIR-Forum. • Enrolment management and student affairs. • Institutional effectiveness, student learning and outcomes assessment. • Academic programmes and faculty issues. • Resource management and quality improvement. • Policy analysis, planning and governance. • Theory, practice and ethics of institutional research. • Technology and tools for institutional research. Forty years later the agenda for the 42 Annual AIR Forum, in Toronto, Canada, still contains the same seven main categories. An analysis of the presentations in the different categories, however, shows that while similar issues as those in the early nineteen sixties are addressed, the strategies and solutions to the problems differ substantially from those of the past, mainly due to the advancement of technology.