Program Indicator Definitions

Instructional Indicators

Bachelor’s Degrees

Total bachelor’s degrees awarded in each academic year. Each award is counted when a recipient earned multiple degrees. Non-primary major plans attached to each award are attributed to the plan-owning department. Source: term degrees awarded snapshot from PeopleSoft for Fall, Spring and Summer.

Example: Student X is a Biology and Film Studies major; the degree will be counted in both the School of Biological Science’s count and the Department of English’s count (because Film Studies is housed in the English Department).

Budget to Instructional SCH

Original general state-aided budget - instruction divided by Instruction SCH as defined below.

First Time First Year Full-time Enrollment

Entering first-time, first-year full-time undergraduate enrollment.  Fall enrollments also include those who began the prior summer.  Source: fall snapshots of enrollments from Peoplesoft.

First Year Retention

Average first-year to second-year retention rate for the previous five cohorts within the department. Source: Fall census enrollment snapshots from PeopleSoft.

Instructional FTE

Instructional full-time-equivalent is the sum of FTE apportioned to instruction over each appointment (primary or otherwise) in a given department.  Department is defined as HR org unit from SAP.  Past apportionment data came from Faculty Insights, where it was collected and verified annually from AY2020 through AY2025.  From FY2026 on, these data are sourced from SAP, where it is entered and verified each fall and spring term.

Instructional SCH

Default rule: SCH stays with the department that owns the course. 

Exception: If a faculty member teaches a course outside a department where they hold an appointment, that faculty member’s portion of SCH is assigned to their home department. 

Student Credit Hours (SCH) are assigned to the department that owns the course. The only exception occurs when a course is taught by a faculty member who does not have an appointment in the owning department. In that case, the SCH associated with that faculty member’s instructional assignment is allocated to the faculty member’s home department. 

For team-taught courses, SCH is first divided according to each instructor’s instructional percentage and then allocated using the same rule. 

For cross-listed courses, SCH is allocated separately for each course section using the same rule. Cross-listing does not automatically assign SCH to the department that owns the parent course. 

Definitions

Faculty

For SCH allocation purposes, faculty includes individuals in positions designated as:

• Tenure-Line Faculty
• Faculty of Practice
• Research Faculty
• Extension Faculty
• Lecturer
• Lecturer/T
• Instructor

Graduate assistants, staff, administrators, and other non-faculty instructors follow the default rule, and SCH remains with the department that owns the course.

Home Department

A faculty member’s home department is the department associated with the largest percentage of the faculty member’s FTE appointment.

Example

Suppose we are tracking SCH for the following faculty members:

Albert Einstein has a 1.00 FTE appointment in Physics. Marie Curie’s home department is Chemistry because the largest share of her appointment (0.51 FTE) is in Chemistry.

Here are five courses from the course catalog:

How SCH is Allocated

Course 1

CHEM300 is owned by Chemistry and taught by Marie Curie, who has a Chemistry appointment. All 100 SCH are assigned to Chemistry.

Courses 2 and 3

The instructor has an appointment in the department that owns the course, so all SCH remain with the owning department.

Course 4

CHEM301 is team taught by Curie and Einstein. SCH is first divided according to instructional percentage.

• Curie’s 50 SCH are assigned to Chemistry because she has a Chemistry appointment.
• Einstein’s 50 SCH are assigned to Physics because he does not have a Chemistry appointment.

Course 5

This course is cross-listed.

• The Chemistry section generates 125 SCH, which are assigned to Chemistry because Curie has a Chemistry appointment.
• The Physics section generates 98 SCH, which are assigned to Physics because Einstein has a Physics appointment.

Majors

Total majors, including both primary (i.e., first major) and non-primary for all student careers.  Based on major academic plans in Peoplesoft as mapped to departments (academic orgs) by the University Registrar.  Where students have dropped and added majors across fall, spring and summer terms in an academic year, the last major(s) is counted. Source: enrollment fall census snapshot of Peoplesoft records.

Net Realizable Tuition

SCH by course career and student residency times base tuition rate. For AY2024, these rates were:

These do not include remissions or differential tuition.

Net Realizable Tuition less Budget

This is estimated by Net Realizable Tuition (above) less original general state-aided budget - instructional, apportioned by instructional FTE (above) as a percentage of a department’s total faculty FTE.

Percentage (%) Instructional SCH Share

Growth in each department’s share (percentage) of the campus’s total SCH in the most recent five-year span.  Department was defined by academic org in Peoplesoft.  Source: enrollment fall census snapshot of Peoplesoft records.

Percentage (%) Major Share

Growth in each department’s share (percentage) of the campus’s total majors in the most recent five-year span.  Department was defined by academic org in Peoplesoft.  Majors were counted as defined in Majors.  Source: enrollment fall census snapshot of Peoplesoft records.

Total Degrees

Total bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees awarded in each academic year.  This also includes graduate specialists and any certificate program that is eligible for federal financial aid.  Each award is counted when a recipient earned multiple degrees.  Non-primary major plans attached to each awarded are attributed to the plan-owning department.  Source: term degrees awarded snapshot from PeopleSoft for Fall, Spring and Summer.

Research Indicators

Book Publications

The total number of books published over the ten-year time period 2015-2024. The reporting methodology matches the AAU membership policy and is sourced from Academic Analytics (AcA). 

Books published by T/TT faculty in benchmarked AcA units are reported to the AAU. 

Book publications reported to AAU by AcA include books, casebooks, edited volumes, encyclopedias, and textbooks. AcA book types not reported include journals, proceedings, study guides and book chapters. 

Book publications are credited to units based on the author’s HR tenure org unit. 

Citations

The average number of citations on peer-reviewed articles for the most recent ten-year period. AcA reports citations in the year of the publication. Citations for articles co-authored by more than one UNL faculty member have been split equally across authors.

AAU uses Web of Science InCites for the citations data. UNL recently subscribed to InCites and are working on a way to aggregate that data by academic department. Currently, we continue using Academic Analytics to track and report this data.

Citations are credited to departments based on the author’s HR tenure org unit.

Competitive Federal Research Expenditures (AAU)

The average competitively funded federal research support as defined by the AAU membership policy, federal research expenditures less USDA research expenditures adding in awards from USDA Agriculture Food and Research Initiative (AFRI).

Expenditures and AFRI awards are credited to departments using NuRamp routing forms. For PI/co-PIs who routed their credit through a unit outside a department, efforts were made to credit a department using the individual’s HR tenure org unit, primary org unit and any secondary appointments.

Creative Endeavors (self-reported)

Creative activities that were created, performed, exhibited, published or produced and self-reported by faculty annually as part of the Research and Creative Activity Report. Activities include works in the fine and performing arts, literary arts, architecture, design, television, film or digital creativity, including software and mobile apps.

Highly Prestigious Awards and Honorifics

Highly prestigious awards, tracked in the National Research Council (NRC) list of highly prestigious awards, are tracked over the life of the faculty member’s career and are credited to the institution where they are currently employed. Once a faculty member retires or leaves an institution, their highly prestigious awards are no longer included in the data reported to AAU. Put another way, the highly prestigious awards follow the faculty member.

The data source AAU uses for highly prestigious awards is Academic Analytics (AcA) and only awards for T/TT faculty in benchmarked AcA units are reported to the AAU.

Prestigious Awards and Honorifics

The National Research Council (NRC) collects and assesses awards in the arts and humanities, social sciences, physical sciences and engineering, and life sciences. Included in the lists are research awards, fellowships, memberships in honorary societies and teaching awards. 

Prestigious awards, tracked by the NRC list, are tracked over the life of the faculty member’s career and are credited to the institution where they are currently employed. Once a faculty member retires or leaves an institution, their prestigious awards are no longer included in the data reported to AAU. Put another way, the prestigious awards follow the faculty member. 

The data source used for prestigious awards is Academic Analytics (AcA) and only awards for T/TT faculty in benchmarked AcA units are reported. 

Research Award Growth

Share of sponsored research award growth. Unit sponsored research awards received in FY2025 less unit sponsored research awards received in FY2021 divided by UNL sponsored research awards received in FY2025 less UNL sponsored research awards received in FY2021. 

Research Proposals Submitted (includes NU Foundation)

Annual proposals submitted from FY21 to FY25. Included are all sponsor types: federal, industry, state agencies, associations/nonprofits and the NU Foundation, for purpose code research.

Proposals are credited to departments using NuRamp routing forms. For PI/co-PIs who routed their credit through a unit outside a department, efforts were made to credit a department using the individual’s HR tenure org unit, primary org unit and any secondary appointments.

Scholarly Research Index (SRI)

The Scholarly Research Index (SRI) is a methodology to provide comparative context for faculty or unit research activity compared to taxonomy peers. This comparison is based on the program indicators Academic Analytics collects and maintains for the peer analysis/benchmarking tools.

Academic Analytics calculates the unit level Scholarly Research Index (SRI) based on the mean Scholarly Research Index (SRI) scores of individual faculty members within the unit. Thus, the Scholarly Research Index (SRI) of each unit or other level of aggregation — program, department, broad field, institutions, etc. — is the average of the deduplicated faculty who comprise that unit. 

Program Indicators for the person-based Scholarly Research Index (SRI) are:

• Total Journal Articles
• Total Awards
• Total Books
• Total Book Chapters
• Total Citations
• Total Conference Proceedings
• Total PI Grant Dollars
• Total US Patents
• Total Clinical Trials

Academic Analytics utilizes a weighting scheme for these program indicators, which varies across taxonomic classifications. For some departments at UNL, there is not a 1:1 match of disciplines resulting in more than one Scholarly Research Index (SRI) score being available for that department. Currently, for units with multiple Scholarly Research Index (SRI) scores, those have been averaged across the disciplines. If there are departments where it does not make sense to average the Scholarly Research Index (SRI) scores, for example if one of the disciplines most closely matches the department at UNL, contact the R&I team to have those adjustments made. 

Sponsored Research Awards (includes NU Foundation)

Annual sponsored awards that were received during FY21-25. Included are all sponsor types: federal, industry, state agencies, associations/nonprofits and the NU Foundation, for purpose code research. 

Awards are credited to departments using NuRamp routing forms. For PI/co-PIs who routed their credit through a unit outside a department, efforts were made to credit a department using the individual’s HR tenure org unit, primary org unit and any secondary appointments. 

Tenure and Tenure-track Faculty Headcount (IPEDS)

The average of the full-time employees with faculty status who are on the tenure track or tenured as reported to the National Center for Education Statistics IPEDS Data Center.  AAU tenure track counts are limited to tenure-track faculty in instruction (including instruction/research/public service combined), research, and management.  It excludes library and extension faculty with tenure or on tenure track.

Headcounts were assigned to departments using the HR tenure org unit.

Total Sponsored Awards (research, teaching, and public service)

Annual sponsored awards that were received during FY21 to FY25. Included are all sponsor types: federal, industry, state agencies, associations/nonprofits and the NU Foundation. Purpose codes reported include research, teaching and public service. 

Awards are credited to departments using NuRamp routing forms. For PI/co-PIs who routed their credit through a unit outside a department, efforts were made to credit a department using the individual’s HR tenure org unit, primary org unit and any secondary appointments.

Total Sponsored Awards Divided by Total State Appropriated Budget

Total Sponsored Awards are averaged from FY21 to FY25 and divided by total state appropriated budget.

General Terms

Budget

Original state-aided budget (total). Original budget includes all permanent funding as of July 1.  Temporary funding and cash carryforwards are excluded.

Data Freeze/Data Snapshot

A data freeze or data snapshot establishes a specific point in time at which data is "locked" for reporting purposes. 

This is important because university data changes continuously. Students add or drop classes, employees change positions, and financial transactions are posted throughout the year. By freezing the data: 

• Everyone uses the same version of the data. 
• Reports can be reproduced later. 
• State, federal, accreditation, and Board of Regents reports remain consistent. 
• Different departments do not end up reporting different numbers from different dates. 

Instruction Average

This is the average of the primary instructional indicators, each converted to a common scale.

Research Average

This is the average of the primary research indicators, each converted to a common scale.

Validation

Validation is the review process used to ensure data is: 

• Accurate 
• Complete 
• Consistent across systems 
• Aligned with defined business rules 

For example, before enrollment, financial, HR, or program performance data is reported, data stewards and business offices may verify that records are correctly entered, coded, and reconciled.