Doctoral Insights Engine
Empowering Data-Driven Decisions for Doctoral Success: UTRGV'S Strategic Use of Dashboards for R1 Aspirations
At the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), data-driven decision-making is critical to supporting the success of our doctoral student body and advancing the university’s goal of becoming an R1 institution by 2028. To facilitate this process, the Division of Research and Graduate College have developed a series of comprehensive dashboards that offer deep insights into various aspects of the doctoral student experience. These dashboards collectively provide administrators, program coordinators, and faculty with the tools to monitor student progress, support academic success, and make strategic decisions based on real-time data.
How the Dashboards Support Decision-Making
- Doctoral Students Lifecycle Dashboard:
- Tracks the academic journey of doctoral students, from enrollment to degree completion.
- Offers insights into credit hour accumulation, academic standing, and degree progress.
- Helps identify students at risk of falling behind, enabling timely interventions to keep them on track for graduation.
- Dissertation Chairs Dashboard:
- Monitors the performance of dissertation chairs and tracks the dissertation credit hours earned by students.
- Provides an overview of faculty advising responsibilities, ensuring faculty have appropriate workloads to guide students effectively through the dissertation phase.
- Doctoral Students Information Dashboard:
- Presents detailed student-level data, such as academic standing, earned dissertation hours, and program information.
- Facilitates targeted support by highlighting students who may require additional academic advising or intervention to improve their progress.
Strategic Impact on UTRGV’s R1 Aspiration
By bringing together data on student enrollment, academic performance, and degree completion, these dashboards serve as strategic tools in advancing UTRGV's goal of achieving R1 status by 2028. The ability to monitor the doctoral student lifecycle at a granular level helps the institution:
- Improve Doctoral Retention and Graduation Rates: By identifying students in need of academic support and ensuring timely dissertation completions, UTRGV can improve both retention and graduation rates, key metrics for R1 status.
- Strengthen Faculty Engagement: Tracking dissertation chairs’ responsibilities ensures faculty are effectively supporting doctoral candidates, contributing to high-quality doctoral outcomes.
- Optimize Resource Allocation: The dashboards provide insights that help leadership allocate resources where they are most needed, whether in student support services, academic advising, or faculty mentorship programs.
- Data-Driven Planning: Leadership can use insights from these dashboards to adjust program offerings, address gaps in academic support, and ensure doctoral programs are aligned with the university’s strategic goals for research excellence.
These dashboards collectively form a powerful reporting ecosystem that enables UTRGV to make informed decisions and provide targeted support to its doctoral student body. This data-driven approach is essential for maintaining high academic standards and achieving the research productivity required for R1 classification.