Introduction
IPEDS, the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, is the set of annual surveys the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) runs for every college and university that takes part in federal student aid programs. It is the dataset everything else in higher ed gets compared against, and the one IR teams pull most often. If you are new to it, start with two things: what IPEDS actually covers, and which questions it can answer on its own.
This post covers both. Clema has a dedicated IPEDS AI agent so you can query the federal database in plain English without navigating the data center or writing joins, and the five questions below are good first pulls. Once you know the dataset, our companion guide on how to phrase IPEDS questions in Clema covers the prompt patterns that keep cohorts and years straight.
What IPEDS covers
| Collection window (2025-26) | Survey components | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Fall: September 3 to October 15, 2025 | Institutional Characteristics, Completions, 12-Month Enrollment, Cost (part I) | Programs offered, awards conferred by CIP code and award level, unduplicated 12-month headcount, credit hours and FTE, tuition and fees |
| Winter: December 3, 2025 to February 4, 2026 | Admissions, Graduation Rates, 200 Percent Graduation Rates, Outcome Measures, Student Financial Aid, Cost (part II) | Applicants and admits, completion within 100%, 150%, and 200% of normal time, outcomes for part-time and transfer-in students, aid and net price |
| Spring: December 3, 2025 to April 1, 2026 | Fall Enrollment, Finance, Human Resources, Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement (new) | Fall census headcount, first-year retention rates, student-to-faculty ratio, revenues and expenses, staff and faculty counts |
Two things trip up new users. First, the collection year is not the data year: the Spring collection asks for fall enrollment and retention, while Graduation Rates in the Winter collection follow a cohort that started six years earlier for four-year schools. Second, publication lags collection by months. NCES released provisional data from the 2025-26 Fall collection on July 28, 2026, so the newest completions figures describe awards from July 2024 to June 2025. The NCES overview of survey components and the 2025-26 Fall data release memo list the components and dates. Academic Libraries, collected through 2024-25, is no longer on the Spring list.
A Few Terms First
- Graduation Rates (GR and GR200): the IPEDS components that report how many students in an entering cohort complete their program within 100% and 150% of normal time (GR) and within 200% (GR200). Older reports call this the Graduation Rate Survey, or GRS.
- Cohort: the group of first-time, degree- or certificate-seeking students who entered together in a given term. Retention and graduation rates are always calculated against a specific cohort, not your whole student body. Retention rates are reported in Fall Enrollment, not in Graduation Rates.
- Keyholder: the person at your institution officially designated to enter, verify, and lock your data in the IPEDS Data Collection System before each deadline. If a number looks off, your keyholder is who confirms it against what was submitted.
What is our fall enrollment headcount for the latest IPEDS year?
A foundation pull. Clema returns the headcount, the IPEDS year, and the survey component (Fall Enrollment). This confirms the institution is in the database and shows how Clema surfaces the source.
What is our 150% graduation rate for the most recent cohort?
The accountability metric. Clema applies the IPEDS 150% of normal time definition from the Graduation Rates component and returns the cohort, the completers, and the rate. Watch for the cohort year; IPEDS publishes graduation rates on a lag.
How does our tuition compare to our Carnegie peers?
A peer comparison. Clema builds the peer group from your Carnegie class, pulls tuition and fees for each, and returns the comparison with the IPEDS year shown. This is the building block for board memos.
What is our total operating revenue per FTE student?
A finance cut. Clema pulls revenue from the Finance survey and FTE from 12-Month Enrollment (NCES calculates it from credit and contact hours, the same FTE it uses for revenues per FTE in the Data Feedback Report) and computes the ratio. This is a question deans ask that crosses two IPEDS components.
What share of our faculty are full-time versus part-time?
A faculty composition pull. Clema returns the counts from the Human Resources survey and computes the share. Useful for tenure-track signaling and accreditation reviews.
What Each Answer Shows
- The IPEDS component. Every answer names the survey (Fall Enrollment, Graduation Rates, Finance, Human Resources) so you know where the figure lives.
- The collection year. IPEDS publishes on a lag; Clema shows the year so you do not accidentally mix a 2023 finance figure with a 2024 enrollment count.
- The cohort definition. Graduation rate answers should specify the cohort year and the 150% time window so the figure is defensible.
Where to Go Next
Once these five confirm Clema understands the IPEDS schema, move to peer benchmarking. Build a stable peer group by Carnegie class, control, region, or designation, and pull the same metric for each peer in one conversation. See the IR metrics and benchmarks reference for which metrics to compare and how to keep the cohort definitions comparable. For the federal release calendar so you know which IPEDS year is current, see the federal data release calendar. And for a worked example of where these questions lead, our sector benchmark of dual enrollment growth lists the exact IPEDS Fall Enrollment questions behind the analysis.
Ask IPEDS in plain English
Start free and ask these five IPEDS questions in your first session.
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