AACP's institutional research mission

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, Summer 1999 by Penna, Richard P

Professional societies and trade associations have a responsibility to study the field they represent and continuously report back to their members and to other constituencies information about the nature of the enterprise and how it is changing. In some industries (e.g., steel, auto manufacturing, agriculture) data derived from such studies form the bases of government policies and investor decisions. Despite the fact that individual companies may be fierce competitors, they willingly provide such data because the resulting analyses provide valuable information on which long- and short-term planning decisions are made.

In 1960, AACP began to formally gather and report data. In the beginning we gathered and reported information on undergraduate and graduate student enrollment and graduations. Later, faculty numbers, types, demography, and salaries were added. A recent expansion has been the addition of financial data for colleges and schools. The Association's Institutional Research Advisory Committee provides member input to the nature of information requested and future directions for the Association's institutional research activities.

The validity of the Association's student and faculty databases and their ability to support accurate analyses for individual colleges and schools are enhanced enormously by the 100 percent participation of all colleges and schools. This cooperation among our members is a characteristic that is envied by other associations of schools of the health professions.

Currently, AACP reports on the numbers of students and the race/ethnicity of students receiving professional and graduate degrees each year at all colleges and schools of pharmacy. Numbers of students and race/ethnicity data are also collected for total fall enrollments in professional and graduate programs and for those enrolled in first-professional-year classes. This information, along with numbers and demographic data for the application pool, is reported to academia in the yearly Profile of Pharmacy Students. A related publication, the Profile of Pharmacy Faculty, is sent to all AACP members annually. It contains numbers and demographic information for all pharmacy faculty as well as salary break downs by rank, years in rank, discipline, institution type (public or private) and type appointment (academic or calendar year).

Our institutional research databases permit the Association to provide peer analyses to administrators on request, and this feature has become an important membership service that AACP has been providing over the years. Staff strives to respond to peer analyses requests within 24 hours of their receipt.

AACP Profile reports provide useful information to assist individual colleges and schools in their planning and decision-making activities. For example the fact that increasing numbers of students entering pharmacy schools have three and four years of college education may indicate to student recruitment officers that they should refocus some of their recruitment efforts on four-year colleges. While we cannot measure the number of applicants that make up pharmacy's applicant pool, we do gather and report information on the nature and size of the application pool. The declining numbers of applications received by our colleges and schools in recent years have caused many in the profession to enhance student recruitment activities. Moreover, that we cannot, at present, accurately measure the size of the applicant pool (i.e., the number of students submitting applications), has caused the Institutional Research Advisory Committee to examine various methods of collecting these data. AACP's Institutional Research activities benefit academic pharmacy in three basic ways:

1. They provide information to individual members that is of interest or use to them in their own planning and decision making (for example the salary survey and analysis);

2. They provide information useful to individual colleges and schools in their decision-making and planning (for example, bench marking and peer analysis); and

3. They provide information to the Association that it uses to "tell our story" for the collective good of all academic pharmacy.

This latter point is the least visible to individual AACP members, but such data make it possible for the Association to respond to press inquiries and provide information to governmental agencies, pharmaceutical organizations, and our sister associations of schools of the health professions.

As good as our institutional research program has been in the past, the needs of college, schools, and faculties continue to change and some of those changing needs suggest that we should consider expanding our institutional research activities. For example, the higher education literature increasingly is citing the need for bench marking among our institutions. If bench marking is to be valid, it must be based on reliable data. Currently, AACP provides institutional financial and salary peer analyses so that member schools can prepare bench marking comparisons. Bench marking for faculty workload and in graduate are just two areas under consideration. It would be far better for academic pharmacy to establish its own bench marking system and criteria than for one to be imposed from outside of academic pharmacy.