About OIRA

Our office was established in response to the growing need to professionalize internal analytic functions for the University. Early in his Harvard presidency, Larry Summers developed an Office for Institutional Research (OIR) and a strategic wing of the Central Budget Office, now entitled the Office of Financial Strategy and Planning. Nina Zipser was appointed in 2003 to found OIR and served as the inaugural Director for Institutional Research. In 2008 OIR moved into the Office of the President and Provost under the leadership of the second director of the office, Erin Driver-Linn, who was Associate Provost for Institutional Research from 2012-2018.

In 2023, under the direction of new Associate Provost Drew Allen, the office was relaunched as the Office of Institutional Research & Analytics (OIRA) to reflect the growing role of the office in evaluating and critically analyzing University data to support decision-making, as well as fostering an analytics ecosystem across the institution.

Our Mission

OIRA provides institutional data analysis and reporting while serving as a trusted resource for implementing best practices in data synthesis and translation. We support a broad set of university functions and work closely with partners across Harvard to employ innovative and inclusive methods that generate actionable insights.

Values