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• Mission and Vision
• Goals and Characteristics
• Peer Institutions and Benchmarks

PEER INSTITUTIONS

With the vision to be a preeminent world-class university and the world leader in the sciences, engineering, and other technology-intensive areas, Purdue University will compare itself with a set of peer institutions for the purpose of benchmarking to assess Purdue’s competitiveness. For university-level benchmarking, these institutions are selected considering the following characteristics:

• Quality that is regarded as comparable to or greater than that of Purdue
  
• Carnegie Foundation Research Extensive classification
  
• Science and technology intensive institution
  
• Comprehensive institution
  
• Public institution
  
• Major land-grant institution
  
• Flagship campus
  
• Geographic distribution

The Selected Peer Institutions:

• Cornell University- Ithaca
• Georgia Institute of Technology-Atlanta
• Pennsylvania State University-University Park
• Texas A&M University-College Station
• University of Arizona-Tucson
• University of California-Berkeley
• University of California-Davis
• University of Illinois-Urbana
• University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
• University of Texas-Austin
• University of Wisconsin-Madison

BENCHMARK MEASURES

Input Measures:

• Entering students’ standardized test scores and high school rank percentiles
  
• Number of National Merit Scholars
  
• Students-to-faculty ratio
  
• Undergraduate class size
  
• Shares of undergraduate class sections and student credit hours taught by faculty
  
• Graduate enrollment
  
• Faculty salaries by discipline and rank
  
• Graduate assistant stipend level by discipline
  
• Appropriations, tuition, fee revenues per FTE student
  
• Student financial aid (per student and as a fraction of educational and general [E&G] expenditures; aid to underrepresented students [per student and as fraction of total aid])
  
• Sponsored funding (total, and NSF data for sciences and engineering) per FTE faculty
  
• Private giving and endowment value

Output Measures:

• Student retention and graduation rates (years to degree for graduate students)
  
• Graduates’ career placement and advanced study enrollment
  
• Number of doctoral degrees granted per year
  
• Student indebtedness upon graduation
  
• E&G expenditures per FTE student
  
• Student credit hours (SCH) per FTE faculty
  
• Demography of underrepresented populations (faculty, staff, students)
  
• Research and Development (R&D) expenditures as a share of E&G expenditures
  
• National Academy/other prestigious memberships
  
• National ranking of academic programs
  
• Number of license agreements and patents for technology transfer
  
• Participation rate of alumni as donors to the university

Source: Office of the President (please visit the Strategic Plan Web Site)