November 19, 2025

The Office of Institutional Analytics (OIA) would like to inform the faculty and research community that any requests submitted to the team seeking data for research proposals or other projects may be delayed throughout the end of the year due to a newly introduced federal survey component that is due early in 2026.

OIA staff, which generally responds to requests by researchers for student- and institutional-related data and analysis within a few days, will be focused throughout December on meeting a deadline set for all four-year selective colleges and universities for the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), said OIA Director Charla Orozco.

The deadline is connected with a presidential directive to the Department of Education to “expand the scope of required [IPEDS] reporting to provide adequate transparency into admissions” within 120 days. In response, the Department of Education proposed to add a new Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) “Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement” (ACTS) survey component. The ACTS survey will require significant staff resources from OIA and is expected to be due between February and March 2026.

Orozco said that UNM faculty are still welcome to submit requests to OIA and will receive a response from her or her team. Based on the timing and nature of the request, OIA may still be able to fulfill requests for faculty, potentially with longer lead times, and will be working with other power-data-using partners around the University during the month of December and into early 2026 to ensure that researchers’ needs are being met, Orozco said.

IPEDS is a system of interrelated surveys conducted annually by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics. IPEDS gathers information from every college, university, and technical and vocational institution that participates in the federal student financial aid programs. The Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, requires that institutions that participate in federal student aid programs report data on enrollments, program completions, graduation rates, faculty and staff, finances, institutional prices, and student financial aid. This new supplemental survey will provide additional information about institutional admissions practices nationwide.

For additional information about the Office of Institutional Analytics and its services, visit their website. For data requests or questions, contact oia@unm.edu.