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Participation Agreement

VSA Analytics offers users a comprehensive and flexible tool designed to advance institutional data capacity and use. Participation in VSA Analytics requires acceptance of this participation agreement and grants access to the VSA Analytics benchmarking tool and national datasets. This participation agreement may be amended by APLU from time to time by providing email notice to the participating institution and continued use of VSA Analytics by the university constitutes consent to the amended terms.

National Datasets. VSA Analytics users will have access to 9 years of institution-level national datasets, cleaned and merged at the institutional level, ready for analysis and reporting. Data include: selected IPEDS surveys; Higher Education Research & Development survey expenditure figures (NSF); College Scorecard, and Student Achievement Measure (SAM) data.

Benchmarking Tool & Reports. VSA Analytics is an interactive benchmarking tool designed to create custom reports from the national datasets. The interactive platform is only available to paid subscribers. Institutional users can create custom peer groups and benchmarking reports. All reports and visualizations can be downloaded and printed. Institutional users may access the benchmarking tool only through the secure VSA portal.

Institutional and Users Agreement

As a VSA Analytics participant, the institution agrees to abide by the following conditions.

  1. Institutions may provide access to VSA Analytics for any current employee at the institution with the appropriate institutional domain name in his or her e-mail address. The designated primary contact can create an authorized account in the VSA Analytics portal. Contractors affiliated with the institution or any other third parties are not authorized to use VSA Analytics. To change the designated primary contact, the president or the designated senior administrator can send an email to support@vsaanalytics.org.
  2. Users will not share the VSA Analytics benchmarking tool or the national datasets supplied by VSA Analytics with third parties or entities outside of the institution. Users agree not to share their account credentials with others.
  3. The VSA data products and tools are intended for analyses, benchmarking and reporting to internal and external university audiences, which may include system offices, governing boards, accreditors, and governmental entities. Some of the data sources will include licensing agreements with the VSA that may limit how the data is to be used or disseminated outside the institution. Institutional users agree to observe those limits. If questions arise about the use or distribution of data sets, reports, or tools, users are to contact the VSA Analytics Executive Director at executivedirector@vsaanalytics.org

Access to VSA Analytics

  • VSA Analytics is open to colleges and universities in the U.S. APLU and AASCU members located outside of the U.S. may also participate.
  • VSA Analytics is funded through annual dues paid by participating institutions. Annual subscription fees are $2,000 per institution. (APLU and AASCU members and VFA participants pay $1,000.) The institution agrees to remit payment of the subscription fees each year within 60 days of receiving an invoice.
  • An institution may withdraw from VSA participation at any time by sending an email to the VSA Executive Director from the institution’s president or senior administrator. After the formal date of withdrawal, no individuals from the campus domain name may access the VSA Analytics data and tools.
  • VSA Analytics is a subscription-based program. The institution acknowledges that it will receive access to VSA Analytics for one year with a paid subscription. If the institution does not renew, access will be withdrawn.
  • The institution understands and agrees that Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, their officers, employees, and board members, and VSA Analytics contractors have supplied VSA Analytics as a service to participating institutions and bear no responsibility for any errors of fact that appear on a participating institution’s profile or within the data sets.

The above terms and conditions constitute an agreement by and between the institution and the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) for participation in the VSA Analytics.