AIRE Highlights 2025

One KU AIRE

In 2025, Enterprise Analytics team at KU Medical Center joined with Analytics, Institutional Research & Effectiveness (AIRE) at KU-Lawrence to form a fully integrated One KU office. As a One KU office, AIRE is now serving all KU campuses as the central data, data governance, analytics and effectiveness office, delivering high‑quality services with integrity, respect and excellence. By intentionally uniting institutional data under a single data strategy, AIRE will enable more consistent, transparent and timely insights that support collaboration, informed decision‑making and shared accountability across KU and all our campuses. This approach strengthens our ability to align priorities and reduce duplication, and ensures that leaders are working from a common, trusted foundation of data in service to the university’s mission.

Actions taken:

• Strategic Planning to review roles and responsibilities and design an organizational structure to serve all campuses at KU (spring and summer 2025).
• Implemented a new AIRE organizational structure (fall 2025 and spring 2026). 
• Designed and implemented an agile AIRE leadership operating model that enables project management and prioritization directly connected to Ku's priorities This operating model mirrors the Relentless Implementation processes used by the University Cabinet.  
• Created a new AIRE vision statement and shared aspirations on who we aspire to be and how we aspire to work as a fully integrated data, analytics, and effectiveness office.​
• Unified AIRE communications and launched an AIRE presence on the KUMC domain. 
• Implemented a unified data and analytics request process to ensure consistency across both campuses. 
• Expanded the Constituent Surveys Process to include all KU campuses.   
• Started working on several major One KU data projects in support of partners in Finance, Research, and HR. 

Looking ahead: 

• Socialize and implement a One KU Data Strategy. 
• Finalize the roles and responsibilities of our new Advanced Analytics team and socialize with key partners. 
• Conduct a BI tool evaluation to assess the current tools used by AIRE and develop a strategy to right-size in the One KU context. 
• Develop and launch One KU Data Governance structures.
• Assess all AIRE business practices, policies, and procedures and update in the One KU context.
• Work with University leaders to identify high-priority One KU data and analytics projects.
• Implement a centralized data integrations hub by enhancing the Data Warehouse and consolidating the data feeds across KU systems. This includes integrations for high-impact projects such as Jayhawk Flex and the upcoming Huron KULC implementation. We will be incorporating BrassRing recruitment data and a wider range of academic data, including academic advising data from Jayhawk GPS.

• Federal Financial Value Transparency & Gainful Employment (FVTGE): First submitted in January 2025, then in September 2025 / annually each fall.
• KBOR UG admissions: Required annually beginning Summer 2025.
• IPEDS Admissions & Consumer Transparency Supplement (ACTS): Seven years of UG and grad/professional admissions data required Spring 2026.
• Major Data Requests: Provided data support for multiple requests from KU leadership to support HLC Reaccreditation, UAKU negotiations, a Market Pay plan, and state and federal changes.  
   

Data, Dashboards, & Analytical Support

• Redesigned Undergrad and Graduate Debt Dashboards: The redesigned dashboards provide better data to campus partners on the lifetime debt of students at KUL and KUMC. This data is particularly important now with new borrowing limits imposed by the One Big Beautiful Bill.  
• Enhancement to the Retention & Graduation dashboard: New visualization showing data for new student success indicators now being monitored by the Higher Learning Commission. Denise Perpich presented on this at MidAIR.
• PhD Funding Project:  Provided analytical support for the PhD funding workgroup as they developed a conceptual model for supporting doctoral students, helping to evaluate and compile metrics that could be used to align admissions targets with student outcomes and institutional capacity.
• KUMC Academic Program Review Dashboard: Launched in Fall of 2025, this dashboard provides interactive data on cohort outcomes over a six-year period. It was leveraged for the KUMC Jayhawks Operating Efficiently and Effectively (JOEE) initiative. Matt Schuette presented on this at MidAIR.  
• Enhanced "Scholarship Spending Trend by Primary ASRP“ report: Released at KULC in 2025 to support efficient scholarship utilization.  
• Retention Study: Completed a retention study that examined the effectiveness of first year seminars on undergraduate retention.
• Jayhawk Flex and Jayhawk Global: Supporting Jayhawk Flex and Jayhawk Global data integration and infrastructure. Campus solutions ➡️ EAB Jayhawk GPS integration is currently underway. Additional priority data feeds will be supported as they are identified. Looking ahead, AIRE will develop reporting and analytics capabilities.  

Student Surveys of Teaching

Partnered with CTE and Faculty Affairs on the Student Surveys of Teaching Task Force to conduct a comprehensive review of KU’s Student Surveys of Teaching tool (Qualtrics) and the survey instrument.

Progress and Looking Ahead

• Redesigned SST survey instrument in Qualtrics (course + instructor items) will launch for Spring 2026 courses.
• Building a new dashboard and reports to launch in Spring 2026. This will enable longitudinal trend analysis, optimize dashboards for instructor needs versus chair needs, potentially integrate AI-powered comment summaries and provide multiple ways to export comments.
• Updated training and support materials.

Student Satisfaction Surveys

AIRE leads the Campus Constituent Surveys process for the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and the Graduate Student Experience Survey (GSES), both administered in 2024. In 2025, we supported advisory teams for both surveys, leading to campus engagement efforts and recommendations reports:  

• NSSE 2024 Recommendations Report.
• GSES 2024 Recommendations Report.

We are currently exploring a national benchmark survey for graduate students in 2027.  
 

Data, Dashboards, & Analytical Support

• One KU Financial Reporting : The goal of this project is to establish a single source of truth for KU financial data to support strategic decision-making at the One KU executive level and ensure consistent financial reporting across both campuses. Leveraging Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC) as the reporting platform, the initiative will lay the foundation for One KU Financial Reporting, providing a unified, real-time view of institutional finances. This project is being managed by the Strategy Office.
• GeoAnalytics Dashboard (KUMC):  First phase of Research Lab Utilization completed early 2025. Direct Expenditure and Indirect Revenue metrics available by building/floor/room, Primary Investigator and organizational unit.
  • In 2026, Facilities Cost dashboards and Office Space/Campus Presence dashboards (Phase 1) will be added.
• Master Plan Dashboard (KULC) :  A tool to allow ongoing monitoring and what-if scenario research regarding master plan space and building assessment. Utilizes enrollment, employee, and building performance data to provide up-to-date information.
  • Office of Research metrics will be added in 2026.  
• HR Metrics Dashboard at KULC:  Phase one includes turnover, retention, and retirement data, now available in the Strategic Alignment Metrics dashboard. Phase one will also include an Employee Head Count page as well as the supervisor page from the current Employment Insights Dashboard.
• Headcount/FTE Tracker and turnover rates provided at KUMC: Headcount and FTE changes (hires, terminations, transfer-ins, and transfer-outs) are tracked within a user-defined 12-month period across user-defined dimensions, including cost center hierarchies, job family groups, and more. Acquisition, departure, growth, and turnover rates are also provided for the selected time period and dimensions, allowing for quick responses to leadership requests.
• Compliance Training Dashboard Launched:  A dashboard application that tracks mandatory training completion across campus.

Constituent Surveys

KU's Constituent Surveys process featured in COACHE 20th Anniversary Impact Report. COACHE is the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) at Harvard Graduate School of Education; KU participates in their Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey.  

Constituent Surveys Implementation Team Update:  32 of the 57 recommendations from the COACHE 2022 and Docking Staff Survey 2022 are now either implemented or operational, with 11 more either in progress or prioritized for FY25!  

Surveys Support

Survey Coordination Policy and Committee Established:  This policy limits survey fatigue and the duplication of data collection by establishing requirements for survey development, submission, distribution, and approval.

Data Quality, Governance, & Literacy

A selection of presentations supporting data literacy:  

• SOEHS All-Staff Retreat.
• New Faculty Chair orientation.
• ADCD (Associate Deans, Chairs, and Directors) Fall Workshop.
• Academic Program Review kickoff meetings.
• Finance open labs.
• Academic Analytics Visit 2025.

Enterprise Systems Leadership Group : The ESLG manages and coordinates data governance and IT governance together. They met seven times in 2025. The group updated their Charter, further developed resources in the Data Governance Toolkit, and issued a statement regarding data integrations at KU - moving forward, all new data integrations should be evaluated with the statement in mind.

Looking Ahead

• Collaborating with CISO in development of One KU Data Classification Policy.
• Developing governance for data integrations.
• Developing guidance for BI tool usage on campus ahead of BI tool evaluation.
• Developing data literacy programming for campus users and decision makers.
• Design and build a self-service data documentation library.
• Exploring options for One KU Data Governance.

Data, Dashboards, & Analytical Support

• Intellectual Credit:  Partnered with the Office of Research to develop a data model that allows for project expenditures to be allocated by intellectual credit. This will be added to the existing Research Insights Dashboard. Will go live December 2025.
• Project Forge:  Grant-funded initiative in partnership with the Kansas Department of Commerce. AIRE collaborated with the Office of Economic Development to develop an AI-powered interactive tool for the Jayhawk Front Door partner website. The tool searches multiple KU data sources (research core labs, websites, Faculty Insight, KUCTC database, and others) to respond to external stakeholder inquiries. Strong guardrails implemented to prevent responses on restricted or prohibited topics. Testing phase currently in progress.
• Huron Research Suite Implementation at KULC:  Partnering with the Office of Research to ensure research data products – Research Insights, Faculty Insight etc. – are aligned with the One KU migration to Huron Research suites.

Faculty Insight

Faculty Insight User Testing Group:  

• Partnered with Faculty Affairs to lead a Faculty Insight User Testing group to enhance our faculty activity management system.
• Faculty User Testing Group - 2025 Report.
• 17 enhancements identified and implemented.
• CV upload functionality is now available for promotion and tenure, annual evaluation, and NIH biosketch formats within Faculty Insight.
• Faculty Insight tutorials updated.

Looking Ahead

• Continuing to enhance the Faculty Insight tool.
• Supporting Academic Analytics and the Office of Faculty Affairs in the implementation of the Faculty Workflow product.