Dedicated analytics positions are lacking. Majorities of respondents indicated that their institution does not have a chief data officer (57%), a chief analytics officer (69%), or a chief AI officer (80%), and only 7% said that their institution has some other type of leadership role dedicated to analytics. While there were small differences, this finding held true for institutions regardless of size. While a majority indicated that their institution does have non-leadership staff dedicated to analytics, only 25% or fewer reported that they have staff dedicated solely to analytics (see figure 14). Overall, respondents were more likely to say that their institution has support in this area from staff not solely dedicated to analytics.

Understaffing and skill gaps in analytics are widespread. Respondents largely indicated that they are understaffed in all analytic areas (see figure 15). Only 32% or less reported having sufficient staff for each type of analytics. Majorities of respondents said that staffing skill/competency levels were appropriate in the areas of student success analytics (60%), academic analytics (57%), and financial analytics (51%), while half or fewer said staffing skill/competency levels were appropriate for learning analytics (50%) and operational analytics (48%) (see figure 16). While a significant number of respondents reported appropriate staff skill levels, these findings still suggest room for improvement—24–33% felt that analytics staff did not have an appropriate level of skills/competency. Deficits in skills/competency may be partly due to having undedicated staff (i.e., individuals with multiple responsibility areas may have less time and ability to be an expert in each area).

To enhance analytics, institutions should boost staff expertise. Majorities of respondents said that their institution could improve the use of analytics by increasing analytics staff expertise (63%), hiring more dedicated staff for analytics (57%), or improving staff ability to communicate data findings (55%) (see figure 17). A significant number of respondents also noted that the use of analytics could be improved by creating more specialized positions and leadership positions dedicated to analytics. Ten percent of respondents noted other actions that could be helpful including efforts toward improving data infrastructure and governance, more training opportunities, and garnering more buy-in and engagement from leaders and other stakeholders.