Memorandum for the NCES Review Tracking System (RTS) - IPEDS Data Collection Cycle

2023–24 IPEDS Data Collection: Winter Provisional Data Release

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2023-24 Memo

• 2022-23 Memo
• 2021-22 Memo
• 2020-21 Memo
• 2019-20 Memo
• 2018-19 Memo

The provisional data release of the components collected during the winter collection period of the 2023–24 Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) contains substantive changes in file structure or file documentation for multiple components of IPEDS compared to the previous year. The “Another gender” question was modified in the Admissions and the Graduation Rates components. Within these components, if the reported value for an institution would be nonzero but less than 5 students, then the institution was instructed to not report the value and instead select the radio button indicating that situation. Details regarding these changes can be found under “Updates to the Data Collection” on the IPEDS Report Your Data website (https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/report-your-data#updates-to-the-data-collection), as pictured below.

The data are released to the public through the “Use the Data” portal (https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/use-the-data) on the IPEDS website. The IPEDS Survey Methodology is located at https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/survey-components/ipeds-survey-methodology as a resource for data users. 

IPEDS is an annual, large-scale, web-based survey that collects institution-level data from postsecondary institutions in the United States (50 states and the District of Columbia) and other U.S. jurisdictions.¹ For more information about the IPEDS Survey, its 12 components, and data release procedures, visit https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/use-the-data/survey-components. This memorandum documents the IPEDS universe of reporting institutions and response to the winter collection period of the 2023–24 IPEDS, which was open from December 6, 2023 to February 7, 2024.

2023–24 IPEDS Universe of Institutions

The IPEDS universe is established during the fall collection period. During the 2023–24 collection year, there were 5,889 Title IV institutions, administrative offices², and U.S. service academies³ in the United States and other jurisdictions of the United States, such as Puerto Rico. For 2023–24, a total of 514 postsecondary institutions were reported exclusively by a parent institution and are not included in the universe counts. The four U.S. service academies that are not Title IV eligible are included in the IPEDS universe because they are federally funded and open to the public.

NCES statistical standards require that the potential for nonresponse bias for all institutions be analyzed for sectors for which the response rate is less than 85 percent. Because response rates were nearly 100 percent for each survey component, no such analysis was necessary.

Table 1 provides an overview of the number of institutions responding to the components that comprise the winter collection period. This table is updated after each collection period’s data release. Appendix A provides a summary of responses for the previous collection year for comparison purposes. Appendix B shows a table of institutions with a Title IV status change.⁴ Of the 161 institutions that were Title IV in 2022—23 but were no longer Title IV in 2023—24, 106 were for-profit institutions.

Table 1. Summary of response by IPEDS survey component: 2023–24 data collection