Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for University Analyst

🎯 Role Definition

The University Analyst is a data-focused professional responsible for gathering, analyzing, and presenting institutional data to inform academic planning, enrollment management, student success initiatives, accreditation, and executive decision-making. This role blends institutional research, business intelligence, and project management to produce actionable insights, ensure data quality, and maintain compliance with FERPA and institutional policy. The University Analyst partners with academic units, admissions, finance, and IT to develop dashboards, predictive models, and strategic reports that drive measurable improvements in student outcomes and operational efficiency.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Institutional Research Assistant or Institutional Research Coordinator
Data Analyst within admissions, registrar, or student affairs
Business intelligence or reporting analyst in higher education

Advancement To:

Senior University/Institutional Analyst
Manager of Institutional Research or Analytics
Director of Institutional Effectiveness, Enrollment Analytics, or Data Strategy

Lateral Moves:

Enrollment Management Analyst
Student Success Data Analyst
Business Intelligence Developer (Higher Education)

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Design, maintain, and deliver recurring institutional reports and dashboards (enrollment, retention, graduation rates, course completion, financial aid impact, and faculty workload) that inform senior leadership and department decision-making.
Extract, clean, and transform complex data sets from student information systems (Banner, PeopleSoft, Colleague), learning management systems, financial systems, and external sources to create reliable, auditable datasets for analysis and reporting.
Develop and implement statistical models and predictive analytics (retention risk models, enrollment forecasting, graduation projection models) to proactively identify trends and support intervention strategies for student success.
Lead the creation and maintenance of interactive visualizations using BI tools (Tableau, Power BI) to translate institutional metrics into intuitive, user-friendly dashboards for administrators, faculty, and external stakeholders.
Produce custom and ad-hoc analyses to answer operational and strategic questions (e.g., program viability, enrollment yield analysis, demographic trend analysis, course demand forecasting) with clear methodology, assumptions, and reproducible code.
Coordinate institutional reporting for accreditation, state higher education boards, IPEDS, and grant compliance, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and alignment with reporting specifications and FERPA requirements.
Establish and document data definitions, metadata, and institutional business rules to standardize metrics across departments and reduce inconsistencies in reporting and analysis.
Collaborate with IT and data engineering teams to design ETL processes, data warehouses, and data marts that improve data accessibility, performance, and governance for analytic consumers.
Conduct cohort analyses and longitudinal studies (retention by entry cohort, time-to-degree studies, student success by program or demographic group) to measure institutional effectiveness and equity outcomes.
Prepare executive-level briefing materials, slide decks, and narrative summaries that convert quantitative findings into strategic recommendations for deans, provost, and cabinet-level leaders.
Monitor data quality and perform routine audits and reconciliations (enrollment rosters, grade distributions, graduation records) to identify anomalies, data gaps, and root causes, and implement corrective actions.
Lead cross-functional project teams to implement new reporting systems, dashboards, or analytic initiatives, managing timelines, stakeholder expectations, and user acceptance testing.
Advise academic and administrative departments on key performance indicators (KPIs), metric selection, and data-driven program evaluation to align unit goals with institutional strategy.
Automate repetitive reporting workflows and data pipelines using scripting (SQL, Python, R) and scheduling tools to increase efficiency and reduce manual error.
Conduct scenario modeling and sensitivity analysis for enrollment planning, financial forecasting, and strategic initiatives (e.g., tuition changes, program growth) to inform budget and resource allocation decisions.
Maintain awareness of higher education trends, benchmarking data, and best practices in institutional research and analytics; produce comparative reports against peer institutions.
Ensure data privacy and compliance with FERPA, state regulations, and institutional policies when handling student-level information and restricted datasets.
Train and support faculty and staff on data tools, dashboard interpretation, and basic analytic techniques to build institutional data fluency and self-service analytics capability.
Evaluate and recommend analytic tools, software, and vendor solutions (BI platforms, statistical packages, data catalogs) to improve analytical capacity and service delivery.
Build reproducible analysis pipelines and documentation (code repositories, data dictionaries, version control) that enable peer review and long-term maintainability of analytic work.
Assist with survey design, administration, and analysis (student experience, alumni outcomes, course evaluations) to integrate qualitative measures into institutional assessment frameworks.
Provide data governance leadership by participating in data stewardship committees, prioritizing data requests, and establishing service-level agreements for analytics delivery.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
Serve as a liaison between institutional research, IT, and business units to align technical solutions with institutional priorities.
Assist in maintaining documentation and training materials for reporting processes and analytics tools.
Participate in user acceptance testing (UAT) for upgrades to student information systems, BI tools, or data warehouses.
Facilitate stakeholder workshops to define metrics, reporting requirements, and validation protocols.
Support external data submissions and respond to information requests from government agencies, accreditors, and third-party vendors.
Mentor junior analysts and interns by reviewing analytic methods, code, and presentation standards.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

SQL: Advanced experience writing complex queries, CTEs, window functions, and performance-tuning SQL for relational databases (PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Oracle).
Data Visualization: Proficiency building dashboards and visual analytics in Tableau, Power BI, or Looker with interactive filters, calculated fields, and performance optimization.
Statistical Analysis & Modeling: Solid grounding in statistical methods, regression, classification, survival analysis, and experience implementing models in R, Python (pandas, scikit-learn), or SPSS.
Data ETL & Warehousing: Experience designing ETL pipelines, working with data warehouses/data marts, and familiarity with ETL tools (Alteryx, SSIS, Airflow) and data lake concepts.
Programming & Scripting: Practical experience with Python or R for data manipulation, automation, and reproducible research (libraries such as pandas, numpy, tidyverse).
Reporting & Automation: Ability to automate scheduled reports and notifications, build parameterized reports, and manage report distribution securely.
Data Governance & Privacy: Knowledge of FERPA, data security best practices, role-based access, and data stewardship processes in higher education contexts.
Survey Design & Analysis: Experience designing surveys, validating instruments, and analyzing survey results for institutional assessment.
Version Control & Documentation: Familiarity with Git, code repositories, and documentation standards for reproducible analytics and collaboration.
Excel & Spreadsheet Modeling: Advanced Excel skills, including pivot tables, macros, and financial/forecast modeling for ad-hoc analysis.

Soft Skills

Strong written and verbal communication: Translate complex analyses into executive summaries, presentations, and actionable recommendations for non-technical stakeholders.
Critical thinking and problem solving: Diagnose data quality issues, select appropriate analytic methods, and synthesize findings to inform policy and operational decisions.
Stakeholder management: Build trust with academic and administrative leaders, manage expectations, and negotiate scope and timelines for analytic work.
Project management: Plan and coordinate multi-stakeholder analytics projects, prioritize tasks, and deliver on time with high quality.
Attention to detail: Ensure accuracy in data, documentation, and reporting — essential for compliance and high-stakes decision making.
Collaboration and teamwork: Work effectively across functional areas (IT, admissions, finance, academic units) to align analytics with institutional goals.
Adaptability and learning orientation: Rapidly learn new systems, data sources, and analytic techniques in a changing higher-education landscape.
Presentation and storytelling: Use data storytelling techniques to guide audiences through findings and recommended actions that support student success and institutional strategy.
Ethical reasoning and discretion: Exercise careful judgment with sensitive student and personnel data and maintain confidentiality.
Empathy and user-centric mindset: Understand the operational constraints of stakeholders and design analytics that are usable, equitable, and actionable.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor’s degree in a quantitative or social science field (e.g., Statistics, Mathematics, Economics, Sociology, Institutional Research, Computer Science, Public Policy, Education).

Preferred Education:

Master’s degree in Higher Education Administration, Applied Statistics, Data Science, Public Policy, Institutional Research, Business Analytics, or a related field.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Institutional Research
Data Science / Analytics
Economics / Applied Economics
Statistics / Biostatistics
Higher Education Administration
Computer Science / Information Systems
Public Policy / Public Administration

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 2–6 years of progressively responsible experience in institutional research, higher education analytics, business intelligence, or data analysis roles.

Preferred:

3+ years working with student information systems (Banner, PeopleSoft, Colleague) and institutional reporting (IPEDS, accreditation).
Demonstrated experience building predictive models for retention/enrollment and developing enterprise-level dashboards.
Proven track record of translating analytic results into institutional policy recommendations and operational improvements.