Data, Analytics, & Institutional Research

Data, Analytics, & Institutional Research (DAIR) at the University of North Texas ensures sound Institutional Research practices, manages existing data warehouses, and provides decision makers and external agencies with official and transactional student, financial, and enrollment data. Working in partnership across the institution, DAIR is tasked with supporting planning, policymaking, academic program reviews, and other institutional data requests in accordance with the UNT mission and strategic goals. 

DAIR collects data on a large breadth of topics, including enrollment, financial aid, research, faculty and staff, and more.  Reports are generated each year based on the findings and can be viewed in Facts & Figures.

UNT Launches New Center of Excellence in Analytics and Data Visualization

DAIR is on a journey towards an enterprise-wide data and analytics program. Consisting of 20+ staff, DAIR is charged with identifying creative data solutions to strategic issues in university management. Over 18 months ago, in colloboration with partners from across the UNT enterprise, DAIR conducted stakeholder analysis, engaged SMEs, and held forums with vendors and academic partners. The end result was the launch of the Insights Program - a comprehensive approach to data warehousing and predictive analytics.

A Dynamic Team Tasked With Improving the Lives of Students, Faculty, and Staff

DAIR houses talented data analysts, data modelers, financial analysts, data scientists, and data management specialists to allow UNT to leverage increasingly complex data to answer key questions, promote student success outcomes, and conduct deeper levels of analysis of enrollment, academic, and financial trends of interest. Ultimately, DAIR ensures sound Institutional Research practices, manages existing data warehouses, and provides decision makers and external agencies with official and transactional student, financial, and enrollment data.

Working with State of the Art Technology

DAIR works with leading industry toolsets including Cognos, Blackboard Analytics, Hadoop, MuleSoft and SAS while having access to a substantial array of professional and personal development options. DAIR staff members are curious, collaborative, and hard working professionals who want to be a part of a team that is on the leading/bleeding edge of analytics to “do data for good”.   

The Insights Program: Bringing Data to Life

DAIR strives to connect data with decisions and elevate awareness of key trends impacting our community. The Insights Program is designed to:

• Assist the university in achieving strategic goals by providing quality data for decision making.
• Elevate data presentation via dynamic, interactive, and informative dashboards.
• Streamline reporting needs for executive management.
• Model data and design visual analytic products to answer the specific business questions.
• Implement a robust suite of SAS toolsets.
• Apply data governance practices to develop a well informed and comprehensive data dictionary/metadata repository for data elements utilized in delivered products.
• Create a new insights.unt.edu website to host the program and its related components for the UNT campuses (website is under development and coming soon).
• Develop a training program and analytics concierge to help cement our culture of use around the new capabilities.
• Lay the groundwork for eventual expansion of the program to allow appropriately trained Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) the ability to leverage the Hadoop environment.
• Provide increased analytic capabilities that encompass basic reporting up through, and including, advanced forecasting and predictive analysis.