THE COST STUDY

Important Notes for the 2022 Cycle

Pricing Structure – The HEC Advisory Board approved a revised pricing structure for the 2022 cycle. The standard Carnegie Classifications have been arranged into four pricing tiers that better align with the institutional characteristics of those classifications.

Missing -vs- Zero Values in Data Entry – Beginning in the 2020 cycle, The Cost Study required that all data fields were filled in with a value, unless you wanted them treated as missing data. For the 2020 and 2021 cycles, missing data was signified by a blank cell. In order to improve the data validation process for the 2022 cycle, instead of using a blank cell, you should now insert a value of ‘m’ to indicate missing data, i.e., when you are unable to provide a value to the study. In all other cases, cells should continue to be filled in with a zero (or relevant numeric value). The use of an ‘m’ instead of a blank applies to both manual data entry in the web portal and the Excel spreadsheet used for uploading data. Please consult the definition for Missing vs. Zero Data for more information.

CIP Codes – In the 2022 cycle, we are continuing to use the 2020 update for CIP codes. When preparing an upload file for your data submission, you should format column C (CIP for program) as ‘text’. Because the 2020 CIP codes differentiate between CIPs with trailing zeroes (e.g., 15, 15.00, and 15.0000), our database has been updated to recognize CIPs as a text/string field. Additionally, if you change the CIP code of an existing program, we can now retain historical records in the portal under the previously assigned CIP code.

Data Dictionary – A new Data Dictionary was published for the 2021 cycle, which provides definitions and examples of the data fields required for data submissions, along with important key terms. Any updates that were made for the 2022 cycle are listed on the Data Dictionary homepage under “Revisions”.

Terms of Use – If you were not a participant in the 2021 cycle, please carefully review the 2022 Terms of Use. There were several updates to the 2021 TOU that have carried over to the 2022 TOU including: edits to Section C clarifying appropriate data sharing and additional information in Section E regarding login credentials.

Online Student Credit Hours (SCH) – For the 2022 cycle, we will continue to use the 4 existing online SCH values to capture all online undergraduate and graduate SCH for the fall semester and annually. Consistent with the 2021 cycle, we will also continue collecting the 4 optional online fields in response to the massive shift to online instruction as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Please consult the definition for Online Instruction for more information.