Federal data: articles for IR teams
What the federal files actually say. IPEDS, EADA, BLS, and College Scorecard analyses for IR and IE teams, plus when each release drops.
What is a SOC code? How BLS classifies the jobs your graduates enter
A plain-English explainer of SOC codes: the 2018 Standard Occupational Classification structure, where OEWS and projections data come from, and how IR teams should read it.
Clema Research Team · 7 mins readCIP 2020, six years in: the codes nobody claimed, and the field that ran away with it
A measured account of CIP 2020 adoption: 42 reportable new series, 38 claimed, 27 new codes that never graduated anyone, and the data science complex carrying half the volume.
Clema Research Team · 9 mins readHow to find the CIP code for any program: a working guide for registrar, IR, and program proposals
A practical walkthrough for matching messy local program titles to CIP codes: the CIP user site tools, a defensible matching method, the two-codes-fit decision, and the nominate-a-new-code path.
Clema Research Team · 7 mins readWhat is a CIP code? The federal taxonomy behind every program number in higher ed
A plain-English explainer of CIP codes: the two, four, and six digit structure, who maintains it, the 2020 revision, and every federal system that hangs off it.
Clema Research Team · 7 mins readThe enrollment cliff by state: where the freshman supply is already falling
First-time freshmen by state of residence, 2016–2024: New York is down 15,700, Pennsylvania down 13,100, Alaska down a quarter. With in-state reliance for every state, a full exposure ranking.
Clema Research Team · 10 mins readA third of colleges cut a team, and the team was small for years first
Institution-level EADA analysis of the decade to AY 2024-25. 32.01 percent of continuously filing colleges cut a team, 261 of those cutters ended the decade flat or larger, tennis and golf supplied 40.5 percent of every drop, and the teams that disappear are small for years first. Two null results on Title IX, and the variable that actually predicts cutting.
Clema Research Team · 12 mins readOne college sport is vanishing, and the fastest-growing one has no name
On a balanced panel of 1,910 EADA filers, tennis is the only large sport in real decline: minus 97 institutions in ten years and minus 124 in twenty. Softball, golf, football and basketball all look like losers in the raw comparison and all four are positive once the institution set is held fixed. Meanwhile Other Sports went from 60 institutions to 432.
Clema Research Team · 11 mins read55 percent of the students, 42 percent of the athletes: the Title IX proportionality gap, measured
Women are 55.15 percent of undergraduates and 42.10 percent of athletic participants at the 2,037 institutions that filed EADA for AY 2024-25, a 13.05 point gap. It is wider than in 2014-15, football explains roughly half of it, and the 1,161 colleges that sponsor no football at all still carry 10.59 points.
Clema Research Team · 12 mins readAthletics revenue is not revenue: 40,829 EADA filings, zero deficits
Across 40,829 institution-year records from AY 2005-06 through AY 2024-25, EADA contains zero reported athletics deficits. In AY 2024-25, 1,288 of 2,037 institutions report revenue exactly equal to expense, to the dollar. What that means for the question your provost actually asked.
Clema Research Team · 13 mins read95,584 fewer clerical jobs, 80,571 more in finance: IPEDS staffing by occupation on 4,902 colleges, 2012 to 2024
On a fixed panel of 4,902 colleges, office and administrative support fell from 13.95 to 10.10 percent of all staff between 2012 and 2024, a loss of 95,584 positions, while business and financial operations grew 43.7 percent. The full occupational breakout, plus the honest answer about where IR staff sit in IPEDS.
Clema Research Team · 14 mins readGraduates per opening: matching IPEDS completions against BLS demand across 17 CIP to SOC pairs
IPEDS 2024-25 completions divided by BLS 2024-34 annual openings for 17 CIP to SOC pairs, sixteen of them credential gated. Nursing 1.39, paralegal 0.25, 12 of 17 below 1.00, plus the state rankings and every reason to distrust them.
Clema Research Team · 14 mins readPrograms die small: which programs colleges are quietly closing, and which fields churn fastest
3,804 of 109,790 IPEDS programs went dark after the 2022-23 award year, a 3.46 percent rate that has not moved in nine years. 76.7 percent of them awarded three or fewer credentials in their final year, the fields that churn fastest are mostly the ones adding programs at the same time, and field-level closure rates do not line up with the federal earnings test.
Clema Research Team · 14 mins readCompletion gaps by field: the higher a bachelor's field pays, the smaller the women's share of its graduates
Sort 124 bachelor's fields by graduate earnings and the women's share of completions falls from 75.7% to 44.8%. Take nursing out of the top group and it drops to 27.0%. The field-level baseline IR teams can benchmark a program against.
Clema Research Team · 14 mins readComputing up 56.9 percent, nursing flat: bachelor's degree production by field, 2018-19 to 2024-25
Bachelor-level registered nursing produced 154,489 graduates in 2018-19 and 154,529 in 2024-25, a net change of 40 awards, while 113 more institutions reported a BSN program. Computing added 50,966. The full field-by-field breakout from IPEDS Completions.
Clema Research Team · 13 mins readA calendar of federal data releases higher ed IR teams should track in 2026
A practical release calendar for the 12 federal datasets IR and IE teams depend on: IPEDS, College Scorecard, Pell, loans, cohort default rates, Clery, EADA, PSEO, PPD, DAPIP, and BLS OEWS.
Clema Research Team · 11 mins readWho's growing through dual enrollment? A side-by-side benchmark of community colleges and four-year institutions
IPEDS 2023–2024 data reveals four-year institutions growing 3x faster in dual enrollment than community colleges, while community colleges carry 32.4% structural reliance. A full side-by-side benchmark.
Clema Research Team · 8 mins read