CIC provides a free set of benchmarking reports, the CIC Insights Tool, to institutional members1. It is intended to help you do three things:
- Understand your institution’s metrics compared to self-curated peers
- Prioritize areas for attention and potentially set targets
- Communicate your findings with key stakeholders across your campus
To assist you in navigation and use, this video provides an introduction. We have also developed a user guide within the CIC Insights Tool.
The original Key Indicator Tool (KIT) and Financial Indicator Tool (FIT) were developed by Mike Williams of the Austen Group in 2004 and served CIC’s members well for over two decades. In 2025, CIC partnered with UQ Solutions to develop the enhanced CIC Insights Tool with interactive dashboards. For those who would like to see reports in the style of the legacy KIT & FIT reports, those are available within the new tool.
1 The CIC Insights Tool sources data from the National Center of Education Statistics (NCES) Integrated Postsecondary Education System (IPEDS); only members who provide data to IPEDS are included.
Consultations
Consultations on interpretation and use of the CIC Insights Tool dashboards are available through UQ Solutions. Additional consultation partners may be found in CIC’s Solution Center by searching under “Benchmarking”.
Contact Information
For more information on the CIC Insights Tool, please contact Ellen Peters, senior director of research and membership strategy, at epeters@cic.edu or (202) 466-7230.