# Keynote at the 6th Annual Conference of the Higher Education Institutional Research (HEIR) Network March 04, 2013 #### 6th Annual Conference of the Higher Education Institutional Research (HEIR) Network: Progressive Partnerships: Engaging stakeholders in Institutional Research 10-12 July 2013 City South Campus Institutional research (or IR) can be understood as ‘the use of research and enquiry to provide evidence to inform policy, practice and management at all levels within higher education’ (as noted at the 2009 HEIR Conference at Sheffield Hallam University). IR is thus very broad and can include research about the student experience, such as ‘retention, progression and achievement; teaching and learning enhancement; research activity and bibliometrics; and institutional, inter-institutional and sectoral performance’ (as noted at the 2010 HEIR Conference at Dublin City University). IR is vital because it enables institutions to take an evidence-informed approach to policy and practice, as well as more generally to provide data to better understand and manage activities within them. The need for good IR – in particular, management information/ data - is perhaps clearer now than it has ever been. The sector has entered a period of change where all stakeholders face unprecedented uncertainty: students are expected to pay increasingly large tuition fees to follow their studies; many academic staff and even university management feel that their jobs are under greater threat than in any time before whilst the nature of their job roles is changing out of all recognition; external stakeholders are expected to play a greater and more complex role in the sector than ever before. The dominant discourse of higher education is now a consumerist one and for many stakeholders in the sector, the future looks bleak. ##### Engaging Stakeholders This has clear implications for IR: how do we engage the many different stakeholders of higher education in the collection of data to support effective management decision making? This raises the question of what IR means to different stakeholders. For some in the sector, the antidote to the consumerist model of higher education is a ‘partnership model’. Is this a way to engage stakeholders in IR too? To what extent can we engage stakeholders as ‘partners’ in IR processes? What does partnership mean? Where is the division between rhetoric and genuine, transformative partnership? These are important questions that face us as an IR community: these are some of the questions that we will be addressing when we meet at Birmingham City University in 2013. Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)