Developing and Maintaining the Information Infrastructure for State Level Higher Education Policy Making

In the context of growing demand for policy-relevant data and information, it is time to take a fresh look at unmet needs for policy-relevant data and information, and to explore alternative approaches to addressing these needs. This report’s aims are to: 1. Clarify the language being used, making distinctions between data and information and the relationship between them. 2. Propose a conceptual description of a state’s system of higher education that can serve as a diagnostic tool for ascertaining. 3. Identify limitations in the availability of information needed to support policy making in higher education and to note some of the key reasons for the lack of availability. 4. Suggest strategies for addressing these unmet data and information needs.