IR is an abbreviation for Institutional Research, and is a collective term for work carried out to support the school's education, research, and social contribution activities, as well as the planning and decision-making of management strategies. In particular, educational IR refers to work carried out to support the formulation of educational reform policies in student recruitment, entrance examinations, the curriculum, and dealings with graduates, as well as decision-making regarding those policies, through the analysis and reporting of IR information related to education.
Educational IR System
Our university has established the "Chiba Gakuen IR Policy and Handling Regulations" and the "Academic IR Committee Regulations," and conducts academic IR under the following structure.
In order to carry out educational IR, we have established an Educational IR Committee chaired by the President. In addition, we have organized an Educational IR Working Group under the Educational IR Committee, which is managed on a day-to-day basis by the Corporate Planning Department's Corporate Planning Division and the University Department's Education Planning Department's Education Planning Office.
Under this system, the Educational IR Working Group is central to systematically and longitudinally collecting data on academic affairs, entrance exams, student life, employment, etc. that has been built into the university's internal system, as well as data held individually by each faculty and administrative office. This allows us to compile consistent data from before a student's enrollment through to graduation, and to analyze and examine the data from various angles from before a student's enrollment through to graduation.
Case studies of educational improvement triggered by educational IR
- Approaches to improving turnover rate
Improving the dropout rate has been a major issue for our university. Therefore, in the first mid-term management plan, we have implemented educational IR and measures with the goal of reducing the dropout rate to 2% or less.- (1) Reforming entrance exams through analysis of pre-admission information
Through multifaceted analysis of average grades, number of absences during high school, entrance exam categories, entrance exam scores, etc., we have identified areas for improvement and implemented various measures. Specifically, we have reviewed application requirements, reformed the entrance exam system by reviewing exam subjects, and revised the evaluation methods and point allocation for each entrance exam category (comprehensive selection, school recommendation selection, general selection, etc.). - (2) Developing measures to prevent staff from leaving by analyzing staff leaving the company
Focusing on the total number of credits earned each semester and GPA, we have identified areas for improvement through multifaceted analysis from various perspectives, such as information before enrollment, grades for each subject, use of facilities such as the affiliated Library, participation in club activities, and participation in campus events, and have implemented various measures. The most effective measure among these was to individually monitor absences from certain courses, contact students who continued to be absent early on, encourage attendance, and hold interviews. In addition, we set standards for the number of credits earned at the end of the first and second semesters, and interview students who have less than that number of credits during long vacations, and also provide course consultations as appropriate, in an effort to quickly improve factors that lead to attrition.
- (1) Reforming entrance exams through analysis of pre-admission information
- Initiatives to improve student satisfaction through student satisfaction survey analysis
In addition to improving the dropout rate, we are also working to improve student satisfaction. From 2020 onwards, we will analyze various information from the educational IR and the results of the student satisfaction survey from multiple perspectives, with the aim of finding information that can be used as input for planning future policies and improving the brand power of our university, such as target fields for improving satisfaction based on the current situation and characteristics of student demographics based on satisfaction levels.
From these analyses, we divided the targets into four areas: priority improvement areas, priority maintenance areas, maintenance areas, and improvement areas, and categorized them based on the priority of improvement. By continuing this analysis over time, we will consider how to utilize the results in various measures such as curriculum reviews, organizational reforms, and campus development plans.
others
In addition, we are hosting a joint IR in collaboration with Wayo Women's University, Showa Gakuin Junior College, and Tokyo Management Junior College, with the aim of helping to improve student satisfaction as part of the University Consortium Ichikawa's mid-term plan. In 2024, we are analyzing the achievement status and factors of the outcome goal of the University Consortium Ichikawa's mid-term plan (2019-2023), which is "average satisfaction at graduation from platform participating universities, etc., of 3.5 or more on a 5-point scale," and conducting cross-sectional comparisons and examinations. In addition, we are co-hosting training sessions for academic affairs staff at each school with Wayo Women's University, Showa Gakuin Junior College, and Tokyo Management Junior College.