Confidentiality
Institution data will be confidential.
Data submitted to University Benchmark Project by members will be confidential. UBP staff will make reasonable efforts to ensure that no member’s identifying information—including, but not limited to, IPEDS ID, institution name, institution address, and contact information—will be associated with benchmark data except to member institutions themselves. An annual report of top performers—institutions whose data on one or more benchmarks place them above the 85th percentile of all participants—will associate institutions' names, with their permission, with individual benchmarks but will not include institutional benchmark values. Peer-comparison reports generated by the UBP web site will identify requesting members by institution name and will present accompanying benchmark data for peer institutions anonymously.
University Benchmark Project staff will, from time to time, provide data to non-member institutions. When data are provided to non-members, only aggregate benchmark data will be provided; no institutional data or identifying information will be included. All requests for UBP data from non-members should be forwarded to UBP staff and will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Data will be accurate.
The University Benchmark Project will make reasonable efforts to ensure that data it includes in its database and reports are accurate. It is expected that member institutions, on their part, will make reasonable efforts to ensure that their data are accurate, and they will avail themselves actively of opportunities to review their data and make corrections before data reporting deadlines.
Data are for members’ use.
Data, institutional and aggregate, and reports provided by the University Benchmark Project are for use by member institutions. Member institutions agree that they will not allow access to institutional or aggregate data by unauthorized individuals to review, generate benchmark information, learn identities of member institutions, or make peer comparisons. UBP aggregate reports can be used by institutions to support institutional purposes, but full aggregate reports should not be posted to Web sites accessible to the general public or made otherwise available to non-member institutions or individuals.
Information and data can be published.
This confidentiality and use policy is not intended to preclude publication of member institutions’ identifying information to verify participation in the NCCBP and to facilitate peer comparison. Neither is this policy statement intended to preclude publication or presentation of aggregate benchmark data for research and analytical purposes. Publication or presentation of aggregate data, whether for internal or external purposes, should be accompanied by explicit acknowledgement that the source of the data is the University Benchmark Project sponsored by the University of Wisconsin - Stout and the National Higher Education Benchmarking Institute. The University Benchmark Project, the National Higher Education Benchmarking Institute, University of Wisconsin-Stout and Johnson County Community College, Kansas assume no responsibility for inferences and conclusions drawn from University Benchmark Project data by others.
