The following section, which is organized by the three seasonal reporting periods, offers a brief description of each survey component in the IPEDS data collection. For more information about each IPEDS survey component, visit IPEDS Survey Components. In addition, NCES recommends reading The History and Origins of Survey Items for the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (2022-23 Update) for further detail on each IPEDS survey item and the legislative origins and requirements.
Institutional Characteristics (IC)
The Institutional Characteristics component of the IPEDS survey collects basic data on each institution, such as institution name, location, educational offerings, distance education, control or affiliation, and student services. The IC component is divided into 3 sections that are further divided into parts.
The characteristics collected determine what other IPEDS components are applicable and used in processing the data from other IPEDS components.
Completions (C)
The Completions component collects data on the number of degrees or other recognized postsecondary credentials conferred from July 1 to June 30. It also collects data on the number of awards conferred by award level, race/ethnicity, gender, and 6-digit Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code. Institutions must report if programs are offered as distance education programs in each award level and CIP code reported. Institutions also report the number of degrees conferred with multiple majors by 6-digit CIP code, degree level, race/ethnicity, and gender. The IPEDS DCS generates summaries by award level, race/ethnicity, and gender based on the first 2-digits of the CIP code. CIP code information is based on the 2020 version of the CIP codes.
In addition to the number of degrees and other recognized postsecondary credentials, this component also collects the number of students receiving degrees or other postsecondary credentials by gender, race/ethnicity, age, and award level. The student count data from this component reflect students who were conferred credentials from July 1 to June 30.
12-month Enrollment (E12)
The 12-month Enrollment component collects unduplicated headcount enrollment, instructional activity data, and the number of high school students enrolled in college courses for credit for the 12-month reporting period from July 1 to June 30. The data are collected in three parts:
Cost I (CST)
Cost I collects data on student charges (tuition and required fees, food/meal plans, and housing) for all undergraduate students and cost of attendance (COA) for full-time, first-time degree/certificate-seeking undergraduate students. COA includes tuition and fees, books and supplies, food and housing, and other expenses and are the values that the financial aid office uses to prepare aid packages. Undergraduate student charges data for full-time students are averages for all full-time undergraduates and may differ from institutional COA, which are limited to full-time, first-time degree/certificate-seeking undergraduate students. Student tuition and fee data are also collected for part-time undergraduates and full- and part-time graduate students. The CST component reopens in the Winter to collect information on financial aid awards that are combined with COA data to calculate an institutional Average Net Price (ANP).
Admissions (ADM)
The Admissions component of IPEDS collects information about the selection process for entering first-time degree/certificate-seeking undergraduate students. Data obtained from institutions include admissions considerations (e.g., secondary school records, admission test scores), the number of first-time degree/certificate‑seeking undergraduate students who applied, the number admitted, and the number enrolled. Admissions data are collected only from institutions that do not have an open admissions policy for entering first-time students. Data collected are from the most recent fall term.
Graduation Rates (GR)
The Graduation Rates component collects information on the number of students entering the institution as full-time, first-time degree/certificate-seeking undergraduate students in a particular year (the cohort) by race/ethnicity and gender; the number of students in the cohort who completed their program within 150 percent of normal time to completion (e.g., “normal” program completion time for a bachelor’s degree would be 4 years); the number who transferred to other institutions; and the number of cohort exclusions. In addition, the GR component gathers the total number of students completing their program on time (within 100 percent of normal time to completion). As required by the HEA of 1965, as amended, this component also collects the number of students who completed their program within 150 percent of normal time to completion for two subcohort groups: the subcohort of students who received a Pell Grant and the subcohort of students who received a Direct Subsidized Loan but did not receive a Pell Grant.
GR helps institutions to comply with requirements of the Student Right-to-Know and Campus Security Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-542) legislation. Institutions operating on standard academic terms (semester, trimester, quarter, or 4-1-4) report on a fall cohort; all other institutions report on a full 12-month cohort (September 1 through August 31). Furthermore, for 4-year institutions, the cohort consists of those students who entered six years ago. For 2-year and less-than 2-year institutions, the cohort is made up of those students who entered three years ago.
200 Percent Graduation Rates (GR200)
The 200 Percent Graduation Rates component combines information reported in a prior collection via the Graduation Rates component with current information about the same cohort of students. From previously collected GR data, the DCS prepopulates GR200 with the following GR data: the number of full-time, first-time degree/certificate-seeking students in a cohort year; the number of students in this cohort completing within 100 and 150 percent of normal program completion time (e.g., “normal” program completion time for a bachelor’s degree would be 4 years); and the number of cohort exclusions. Then, GR200 collects the count of additional cohort exclusions and additional program completers between 151 and 200 percent of normal program completion time.
For 4-year institutions, the cohort consists of those students who started eight years ago, and for less-than-4-year institutions (2-year and less-than-2-year institutions), the cohort is made up of those students starting four years ago. For 4-year institutions, the information collected is limited to bachelor’s-degree-seeking students, while less-than-4-year institutions report on the entire cohort (i.e., all degree/certificate-seeking students). Institutions operating on standard academic terms (semester, trimester, quarter, or 4-1-4) report on a fall cohort; all other institutions report on a full 12-month cohort (September 1 through August 31).
Outcome Measures (OM)
The Outcome Measures component collects data from degree-granting institutions on the award and enrollment status for four cohorts of undergraduate degree/certificate-seeking students. The four student cohorts are as follows:
In addition to the total students in each of the four main cohorts, OM also collects subcohorts by Pell Grant recipient status (Pell Grant recipients and non-Pell Grant recipients), for a total of eight undergraduate subcohorts. The cohorts consist of all entering students who began their studies between July 1 and June 30. Student completion status is collected as of August 31st at 4, 6, and 8 years after students entered the institution. At each status point, institutions report the highest level of award students earned as of that status point.
In addition to completion status, the OM component collects enrollment status as of 8 years after students entered the reporting institution. For students who do not complete an award, institutions report the number of students who remain enrolled at the reporting institution, leave the reporting institution and enroll at another institution, whose enrollment status is unknown, or are excluded from the cohort. Allowable exclusions include those students who died or were totally and permanently disabled; students who left school to serve in the armed forces (or were called up to active duty); those who left to serve with a foreign aid service of the federal government, such as the Peace Corps; and those who left to serve on official church missions.
Student Financial Aid (SFA)
The Student Financial Aid component is divided into two sections. Section 1 gathers data on the number of undergraduate students awarded financial aid and the amount of aid awarded, with particular emphasis on full-time, first-time degree/certificate-seeking students. Both grant/scholarship aid and loan aid are collected, by source of aid. Undergraduate student counts and awarded aid amounts are obtained separately for non-degree/non-certificate-seeking students. Section 2 collects data on the educational benefits (i.e., Tuition Assistance Program or Post-9/11 GI Bill) received by military servicemembers, veterans, or eligible dependents.
Cost II (CST)
The CST component reopens during the winter collection period to collect information on undergraduate student counts and awarded aid amounts for two subcohorts of full-time, first-time degree/certificate-seeking undergraduate students: those awarded any grant aid, and those awarded Title IV aid. These data are combined with the COA data to calculate an institutional ANP. Institutions are permitted to update all COA data elements during the winter collection period, but cannot alter the student charges data reported during the fall collection period.
Academic Libraries (AL)
The Academic Libraries component collects information from degree-granting institutions on library collections, circulations, interlibrary loan services, and expenditures for the fiscal year. AL defines fiscal year as the most recent 12-month period that ends before October 1, and corresponds with the institution’s fiscal year. Institutions first answer screening questions within the Institutional Characteristics component that determines the requirement to complete all or part of the Academic Libraries component.
The AL component consists of two sections:
Fall Enrollment (EF)
The Fall Enrollment component is a fall census and has six separate parts. Institutions operating on a traditional academic year calendar (semester, trimester, quarter, or 4-1-4) report parts A, B, C, and D as of the institution’s official fall reporting date or October 15. Institutions operating on a nontraditional (other) academic calendar, a calendar that differs by program, or a calendar that enrolls students on a continuous basis report fall enrollment using parts A, B, C, and D for students who enroll any time during the period from August 1 to October 31.
Part A collects the number, race/ethnicity, gender, and attendance status (full- or part-time) of students enrolled in the fall, including the number who are first-time degree/certificate-seeking undergraduate students; the number who are degree/certificate-seeking undergraduates; total undergraduates; and total graduate students. In addition, Part A collects data on the number of students enrolled exclusively in distance education courses; at least one, but not only, distance education courses; or no distance education courses. These data are reported by student level, undergraduate degree/certificate-seeking status, and student residence location (i.e., in same state or jurisdiction as the institution; in a different state or jurisdiction as the institution; outside the United States; or unknown).
Part B is required when data correspond to the fall of an odd-numbered year, but optional in an even-numbered year. This part collects enrollment counts by age category, gender, and attendance status for undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in the fall.
Part C is required when data correspond to the fall of an even-numbered year, but optional in an odd-numbered year. This part collects summary data on the residence of first-time degree/certificate-seeking undergraduate students who enrolled in the fall and the number of those students that completed high school in the last 12 months, by state or other United States jurisdiction of residence.
Part D collects data on the total number of undergraduate students who enter the institution for the first time in the fall term, whether they are degree/certificate-seeking or not. This includes both full-time, first-time and part-time, first-time undergraduate students, as well as any students who transfer into the institution.
Part E collects data on retention rates, which quantify the proportion of the first-time student population enrolled during the previous fall term who returned to the same institution in the following fall term. Four-year institutions report their retention data separately for full-time, first-time and part-time, first-time bachelor’s-seeking undergraduate students. Less-than-4-year institutions report their retention data separately for all full-time, first-time and part-time, first-time degree/certificate-seeking students.
Part F gathers an estimated undergraduate program student-to-faculty ratio. The survey instrument includes a worksheet to assist the institution in calculating the ratio requested.
Finance (F)
The Finance component collects summary data on each institution’s financial status for the most recent fiscal year ending prior to October 1 of the current IPEDS data collection year, including amounts of revenues and expenses (by type of revenue or expense), changes in net position, amounts of scholarships and fellowships, and pensions.
This component is designed to follow the format of institutional financial statements suggested by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). Different versions of the Finance survey forms are available based on the control of the institution: public, private nonprofit, and private for-profit, and degree-granting status. Public institutions choose between two versions of the component depending on which standards they used for their internal accounting: (1) GASB reporting standards or (2) FASB reporting standards.
Public institutions that use GASB reporting standards to prepare their financial statements report data on their statement of financial position (Part A), revenues and other additions (Part B), expenses and other deductions by functional and natural classification (Part C), summary of changes in net position (Part D), scholarships and fellowships (Part E), endowment assets (Part H), pension information (Part M), and financial health (Part N). Additionally, they report certain data for the U.S. Census Bureau, including revenue data (Part J), expenditure data (Part K), and debts and assets (Part L).
Private nonprofit institutions and public institutions that use FASB reporting standards to prepare their financial statements report data on their statement of financial position (Part A), summary of changes in net assets (Part B), scholarships and fellowships (Part C), revenues by source (Part D), expenses and other deductions by functional and natural classification (Part E), endowment assets (Part H), and financial health (Part I).
Private for-profit institutions use a form that is similar to the private nonprofit form, but adjusted to account for differences between private nonprofit and private for-profit institutions (e.g., restricted/unrestricted status of revenues is not collected from private for-profit institutions). Private for-profit institutions report data on balance sheet information (Part A), summary of changes in equity (Part B), student scholarships and fellowships, and sources of discounts and allowances (Part C), revenues by source (Part D), expenses and other deductions by functional and natural classification (Part E), income tax expenses (Part F), and financial health (Part G).
Human Resources (HR)
The Human Resources component of IPEDS, which has eight distinct but related parts (labeled A through H), collects data on the number of staff on the institution’s payroll as of November 1 of the current IPEDS Data Collection Year. The following parts constitute the Human Resources component:
Not all institutions are required to complete all eight parts, as indicated below: