The National Center for Educational Statistics is considering a new system that will collect enrollment and graduation data from schools whose students receive federal financial aid.
"I believe the world has changed in ways that make widespread success in higher education virtually a matter of public health," Paul E. Lingenfelter Executive Director at the State Higher Education Executive Officers told the Orient. "The future of our nation, as well as economic opportunity for individuals, depends on the extent and quality of participation in higher education."
The current system, known as the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), collects data regarding graduation and enrollment rates, faculty salaries, and student financial aid. However, most of the data about colleges and their students is self-reported by the institution or comes from surveys given to students asked to recall their experiences in college.
"These sources are inadequate for many reasons," Lingenfelter said.
Many students transfer to different colleges over the course of their undergraduate education. The current system makes it difficult to track these students.
IPEDS leaves much unanswered, including measuring how long it takes students to reach specific degree levels and the time it takes students to complete degree programs if they are in need of financial aid but do not receive aid.
There are also concerns with current financial aid allocation. Proponents of the new system say more data is needed to determine if resources are making education possible for students from lower and middle-income levels.
Another significant question revolves around the "net price" of college education. Data suggests that although tuition costs are rising, students are receiving more aid. Experts are still unsure if students are actually paying more for college.
"The only way to answer such questions is to collect data on individuals over time, as they attend different institutions while moving through the system of higher education," Lingenfelter said.
The proposed system seeks to gather a more complete set of data. Eventually, data would be collected about individual students.
"Such statistics would, for the first time, give policy makers and consumers accurate and comprehensive information about higher education in this country," David Thomas of the U.S. Department of Education told the Orient.
More comprehensive data would allow the Department of Education and policymakers to evaluate the performance of college students who receive financial aid and to improve the government programs that help these students.
The information may also help policymakers make higher education more accessible.
"My association supports this proposal to establish a basic student unit record data system because it would advance our core purpose, to promote widespread, successful participation in higher education," said Lingenfelter.
According to Thomas, 39 states already have some type of student unit records system.
The proposal of a new system for gathering data is a product of the "No Child Left Behind" campaign by the Bush Administration.
"The big picture is that everyone is worried about the outcome, whether institutions are providing useful education for students in later life," Bowdoin President Barry Mills said. "There is a feeling in America that we haven't measured success of institutions."
Based on contact with alums, administrators generally believe Bowdoin students are well-prepared for the real world.
"We know from the graduates that they are leaders in the community with values and good judgments," Mills said.
If implemented, the proposed system will bear added costs for institutions. Expenses will arise when updating computer systems and adding trained personnel.
"A simple unit record system shared across all institutions would be much more adaptable and efficient in the long run," Lingenfelter said.
However, the cost of changing the system is not the only concern for many opponents of the system change.
"The greatest concern is not operational, but the idea that we will create a national database on everyone who ever enrolls in a single college course that can track that person by social security number," National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities Vice President for Governmental Relations Sarah Flanagan wrote in an email to the Orient.
Opponents of the proposed system fear that it might infringe upon a student's privacy, because it would acquire data about individual students and track them using their individual Social Security numbers. The current system gathers data without using personally identifiable information about the students.
"We [the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities] are opposed to it because we do not believe that the potential benefits of learning more about how people complete college through transfers outweighs the threat to student privacy," Flanagan said.
Mills noted that the privacy concerns are real.
"In addition to the privacy concerns, the administrative costs burden the college over the long haul. I hope and suspect because of the costs and privacy issues the [proposed system] will not go anywhere," Mills said.
Lingenfelter, however, argued that high-tech data protection would protect student privacy.
"I have never heard of a case of identity theft, for example, occurring by extracting data from well-protected governmental data bases," Lingenfelter said.
"We need to protect privacy, and we need good data on the experience of students in higher education. These objectives are both vitally important and can be achieved simultaneously," Lingenfelter said.
The system would have firewalls to block the information from unauthorized users. There would also be severe criminal penalties for those who break the laws that govern the system's privacy.
Richard Morgan, an expert on civil liberties and Bowdoin's William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Constitutional and International Law and Government, believed that the Department of Education's claim that it would protect student privacy is credible.
"I don't see this as a threat, even though the proposed system is more individualized than [the one] before," Morgan said. "The major civil liberties threat comes from outside access to the database."
Congress must decide whether to give the Department of Education the power to create the new system. If it does so, 1,500 colleges will use the setup in the 2006-2007 school year as a test run.