A conceptual and methodological approach to the identification of peer institutions

Abstract

In recent years, planners, administrators, and researchers have increasingly sought ways to classify higher educational institutions for descriptive, comparative, and analytical purposes. This paper describes a methodology developed as an alternative to conventional institutional classification structures, intended to reduce (if not eliminate) the limitations of those models: arbitrariness, a priori specification of the classification structure, and the inability to accommodate more than a limited number of classification criteria. Using a combination of factor analysis and cluster analysis, eight homogeneous groups of institutions were developed from the population of all doctoral degree-granting institutions in the AAUP's “Category I.” A discriminant function analysis indicates that the eight groups are each different from the others at statistically significant levels. Ways in which the methodology can be used for planning, administrative, and research purposes are discussed, as are the dangers in using “peer groups” for institutional planning and analysis.