Current Trends in Image Assessment. Working Paper Series.

Image assessment in higher education and procedures for conducting image assessments are discussed. Image assessment is the process of finding out what others think about an organization. It is proposed that when image assessments are approached objectively, the results can help determine constituent needs, anticipate vocational trends, survey private and public funding patterns, discover shifts in demographic patterns, and detect inaccurate perceptions so they may be corrected. Since internal factors affect external images of an institution, image assessment efforts should be directed not only to outside constituents, but also to students, faculty, and staff. Assessment zones or circles of assessment influence that surround an institution can be analyzed in terms of prestige, resource, recruitment, impact, and commorancy (the town, city or suburb in which the institution is located). In addition to goal setting, image assessment should involve systematic categorization of information needs. Within internal and external environments, academic and support items may be grouped according to their essential qualities (i.e., cost, administration, evaluation, maintenance and repair, and expansion). Research techniques for collecting data are identified, and the use of image-assessment results for institutional decision-making is discussed. (SW)