Time Flies. It has been more than two years since the Taiwan Association for Institutional Research (TW-AIR) was established. Under the leadership of former President Huang, TW-AIR has thrived and 85 higher education institutions as well as more than 170 professionals have joined the association. With the guidance from the Ministry of Education within these two years, many universities actively collaborated with TW-AIR and held workshops and international conferences. The understanding and recognition of institutional research has been rooted in Taiwan’s higher education. Taiwan’s institutional research explored the various topics, such as definition exploration, data field clarification, data warehouse establishment, security assurance, visualization, and student learning outcomes, etc. These studies provide a solid foundation for the future development of institutional research.

It is expected that institutional research will play the important role in the implementation of Higher Education Sprout Project. The “evidence-based” decision making will assist in the assessment and adjustment of institutional development. Meanwhile, universities can conduct “environmental scanning” to assess its position, characteristics, the external impacts on campus environment, and conduct systematic and holistic evaluation. In addition, universities can integrate institutional research with technology and promote institution’s financial development, industry-university cooperation, internationalized education, faculty development, and the social responsibility of higher education. The association looks forward to working together with all the members and make great contributions to the advancement of Taiwan’s institutional research.

Ching-Jong Liao, Preisdent of Taiwan Association for Institutional Research