Data Dictionary

At the University of Tennessee, we are committed to transparency, including how we collect and define the data elements seen across this suite of dashboards. This page includes definitions of terms seen on each dashboard in the suite. For further information, please contact us at data@tennessee.edu.

Enrollment

Term	Definition
Age Range	Groupings of students by age as of the end of the year in which the term falls. Groupings are <18, 18-24, 25-54, and 55+.
Citizenship	The legal citizenship designation of the student. Students are classified as either a US citizen, Permanent US Resident, or Non-Resident Alien.
Class/Degree Lvl	Indicates student’s current degree level and class designation.
Class/Degree Lvl: Undergraduate	A student enrolled in a 4- or 5-year bachelor's degree program. • Dual enrolled students are enrolled in college courses offered by an institution of higher education while enrolled in high school or seeking a recognized equivalent.* • Undergrad non-degree seeking students are students enrolled in undergraduate classes and are not pursuing a degree. • The terms freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior are defined by each institution to describe the level of a student working toward an undergraduate degree or certificate. • Fifth year seniors are enrolled in bachelor programs that typically require 5 years of coursework.
Class/Degree Lvl: Graduate	A student who holds a bachelor's degree or above and is taking courses at the postbaccalaureate level. These students may or may not be enrolled in graduate programs.* • Master’s students pursue a program of study of at least the full-time equivalent of 1 but not more than 2 academic years of work beyond the bachelor's degree. Master’s also includes students in graduate certificates, education specialist, and graduate specialists programs* • Doctoral students have been formally admitted to graduate studies and their major academic endeavor consists of formal course work directed towards fulfilling requirements for a doctoral degree.* • Professional students have been accepted into a program leading to a JD, MD, DDS, PharmD, or DVM degree.
Discipline	The general area of study of the student’s major based on the first two digits of the Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code and may not match degree or major names at individual UT Institutions. More information regarding CIP codes can be found here.
First Generation	As reported on the FAFSA, the student’s parent(s) or guardian(s) did not attend any post-secondary institution. More information regarding FASFA can be found here.
FT/PT	Full time (FT) students are enrolled in at least 12 credit hours as an undergraduate or 9 credit hours as a graduate student. Part time (PT) students are enrolled in less than 12 credit hours as an undergraduate or 9 credit hours as a graduate student.
Gender	The gender categories in this database are female, male, and unknown.
Jurisdiction	The county, state, or country a student lists as their permanent address. Students are non-resident aliens if they are not from the United States or United States territories. Students are in-state residents if their permanent address is in Tennessee and out-of-state-residents if their permanent address is not in Tennessee.
Military Status	Active duty students are currently serving in the United States Military. Veteran students have previously served in the United States military. Reserves / National Guard students are currently serving in the Reserves or the National Guard.
New/Cont.	Students who are new to their respective university and/or degree level. • A first-time full-time freshman (FT/FT Freshmen) has no prior postsecondary experience attending any institution for the first time at the undergraduate level and is taking at least 12 credit hours. • New transfers are students who are new to their respective university and are transferring from another university. • Continuing students registered at the institution during the preceding term, or in the case of the fall term, during the preceding spring or summer term. • Readmit students have previously attended the institution and are not returning students.
New Students	A first-time full-time freshman (FT/FT Freshmen) has no prior postsecondary experience attending any institution for the first time at the undergraduate level and is taking at least 12 credit hours.
Online	Students who are taking all classes online and students who are enrolled in all-online programs.
Pell Recipients	Students who received and accepted the Pell Grant from the United States federal government. More information regarding the Pell Grant can be found here.
Race or Ethnicity	Categories developed in 1997 by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that are used to describe groups to which individuals belong, identify with, or belong in the eyes of the community. The categories do not denote scientific definitions of anthropological origins. A person may be counted in only one group. The groups used to categorize U.S. citizens, resident aliens, and other eligible non-citizens are as follows: Asian, Black, Hispanic, Native American, Multiracial, White, Unclassified, Non-Resident Aliens, Unknown.*
Residency	A student’s permanent address as it would appear on their driver's license or voter registration.
Rural/Urban	The rural or urban designation from the United States Census Bureau. More information regarding the rural/urban designation can be found here.
Semester	Semester and term are used to identify the formally designated period during which classes are scheduled.**
System	The UT System in this dashboard is composed of four campuses: University of Tennessee, Knoxville; University of Tennessee at Chattanooga; University of Tennessee Martin; and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Data for the University of Tennessee Southern was not available at the time of publication.
Sources:	* The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) ** University of Tennessee, Knoxville Glossary

Research Expenditures

Term	Definition
Expenditures	Includes all expenditures for R&D activities from an institution’s current operating funds that are separately accounted for. • Sponsored research (federal and nonfederal) • University research (institutional funds which are separately budgeted for individual R&D projects) • Startup, bridge, or seed funding provided to researchers within your institution • Other departmental funds designated for research • Recovered and unrecovered indirect costs • Equipment purchased from R&D project accounts • R&D funds passed through to a subrecipient organization, educational or other • Clinical trials • Research training grants funding work on organized research projects • Tuition remission provided to students working on research
Field	The 40 fields of R&D reported in the survey questionnaire. In the data tables, the fields are grouped into 10 major areas: computer and information sciences; engineering; geosciences, atmospheric sciences, and ocean sciences; life sciences; mathematics and statistics; physical sciences; psychology; social sciences; other sciences; and non-science and engineering. Due to data relevance, the dashboard does not report non-science and other sciences fields.
Fund Source	Fund Source identifies the entity from which the funds originated, including: • Federal government: Any agency of the U.S. government. Federal funds which were passed through to the reporting institution from another institution were included. • State and local government: Any state, county, municipality, or other local government entity in the United States, including state health agencies. State funds which supported R&D at agricultural and other experiment stations were included. Public institutions reported state appropriations restricted for R&D activities in this category. • Business: Domestic or foreign for-profit organizations. Funds from a company’s nonprofit foundation were not reported; they were reported under Nonprofit organizations. • Nonprofit organizations: Domestic or foreign nonprofit foundations and organizations, except universities and colleges. Funds from the reporting institution’s 501(c)3 foundation were reported under Institutional funds. Funds from other universities and colleges were reported under All other sources. • Institution funds: Includes institutionally financed research (all R&D funded by the institution from accounts which are only used for research, excluding institution research administration and support), cost sharing (committed), and unrecovered indirect costs (the portion of indirect costs associated with a sponsored project which not reimbursed by the sponsor in accordance with the institution’s negotiated indirect cost rate). • All other sources: Sources not reported in other categories, such as funds from foreign governments, foreign or U.S. universities, and gifts designated by the donors for research.
Government Entity	The specific entity from which funds originated within those expenditures which have a fund source of “Federal government,” including: • DOD: Department of Defense • DOE: Department of Energy • HHS: Department of Health and Human Services • NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration • NSF: National Science Foundation • USDA: United States Department of Agriculture • Other agencies: Other federal government agencies which are not listed
Peer Group	Peers are systems compared with the UT System or institutions compared with UT campuses relative to key performance indicators.* There are four different peer groups: • Comparable: Peers that possess similar institutional characteristics such as levels of degrees awarded, governance, Carnegie Classification, and enrollment profile. • Aspirational: Peers that possess similar institutional characteristics and have achieved performance on one more or more metrics that the university aspires to attain. • SEC: The Southeastern Conference is an athletic conference. Only the University of Tennessee, Knoxville is compared to the SEC. More information regarding the SEC can be found here. • LGI: Locally governed institutions are state universities that have their own governing boards. The Chattanooga and Martin campuses are compared with LGIs.
System	Four UT campuses are included in this dashboard: University of Tennessee, Knoxville; University of Tennessee at Chattanooga; University of Tennessee at Martin; and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. University of Tennessee Southern data is not included in this dashboard because it does not report research expenditures on the National Science Foundation’s Higher Education Research and Development survey.
Sources:	All definitions are from the National Science Foundation’s Higher Education Research and Development survey unless otherwise noted. * The Society for College and University Planning (scup.org).

Salary Database

Term	Definition
Base Salary	Amount paid to permanent employees by the University of Tennessee, excluding additional compensation and benefits.
Primary Job Title	The University of Tennessee standardized job titles assigned to each employee based on the majority of time spent (see here for job descriptions).

UT Impact

Term	Definition
Alumni	Any living person granted a degree from UT as of July 1 of the fiscal year shown and their last known address.
Economic Impact	Economic impact was calculated by UT’s Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research. The estimate includes all the direct spending made by the UT System for the fiscal year shown, as well as additional jobs and income created through the multiplier effect (whereby dollars are spent and re-spent elsewhere in Tennessee such that each dollar spent by the UT System can generate more than one dollar of economic activity).
Employees	Any person paid by UT in the fiscal year shown and their home address. This excludes student employees.
Insured Building Value	Includes all buildings that are active as of June 30 of the fiscal year shown.
Jobs Created	The count of jobs created was calculated by UT’s Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research. The estimate includes all the direct spending made by the UT System for the fiscal year shown, as well as additional jobs and income created through the multiplier effect (whereby dollars are spent and re-spent elsewhere in Tennessee such that each dollar spent by the UT System can generate more than one dollar of economic activity).
Students	Official 14th day enrollment for Fall of the academic year shown and their permanent address. Veterans: Number of students who identified as a US Military Veteran. Two-Year Transfer: Number of transfer students from a Tennessee 2-Year Institution.
Tennesseans Served	Participants include IPS contacts, UT Extension contacts, and UT AgResearch attendees/contacts for the fiscal year shown. Counts include "live" contacts via virtual live seminars but excludes impressions and engagements with social media.
Total Expenditures	UT salaries & benefits and spending to vendors.
Vendors	External providers of goods and services including research and non-research.
Volunteers	UT Extension volunteers for the fiscal year shown.

Known Discrepancies

University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Term	Discrepancy
First Generation	UTK uses application data to determine first generation status. UTSA uses financial aid (i.e.FASFA) data to determine first generation status.
Student Level	UTK considers all first-time full-time students in the cohort “freshmen” regardless of credit hours. UTSA does not do this.
New Graduate Students	UTK does not count new transfer graduate students as new; UTSA does.

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Term	Discrepancy
Total Enrollment	UTC includes audit-only and English as a second language (ESL) students in total enrollment. This is different from UTSA and Tennessee Higher Education Commission.
New Graduate Students	UTC considers new transfer graduate students to be new transfers; UTSA considers them to be new graduate students.
New Transfers	UTC considers new transfer graduate students to be new transfers; UTSA considers them to be new graduate students.
Age	UTC uses the first day of the term to define age. UTSA uses the end of the year in which the term falls.

University of Tennessee at Martin

Term	Discrepancy
Total Enrollment	UTM’s enrollment includes audit-only students, which usually affects 1-5 students per semester.
New Graduate Students	UTM limits this designation to degree-seeking students; UTSA does not.

University of Tennessee Health Science Center

Term	Discrepancy
New Graduate Students	UTHSC limits this designation to degree-seeking students; UTSA does not.
Residency	UTHSC does not use citizenship in determining residency.
Age	UTHSC uses age as of July 1 for fall and January 2 for spring. UTSA uses the end of the year in which the term falls.