Comparator Peer Institutions
The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, in an empirical study conducted in 2008, used a hybrid approach including both principal components analysis and qualitative judgment to identify a list of institutions with comparable characteristics (such as mission, size, control, programs mix, etc.) for each of the 35 USG institutions. The choice of comparable institutions was restricted to public higher education institutions across the United States.
The initial list of institutions used for the UWG comparator analysis was drawn from the 2006 IPEDS data for public, four-year institutions (excluding military academies) with Carnegie classification of Masters’ Colleges and Universities (larger programs), resulting in 165 institutions. A cluster analysis of 166 institutions (including UWG) produced 12 cluster groups and the optimal cluster group narrowed the list down to 45 institutions. It was from the list of 45 institutions that UWG used comparative data and qualitative judgment to identify the following EIGHTEEN institutions.