Empowering Leaders with Data to Drive Enhanced Decision-Making​

In 2021, UMass identified the need for campuses to have a systemwide tool that provides comprehensive, consistent data on student enrollment, operational effectiveness, and overall financial health. In response, the Strategic Planning Analytics and Reporting for Campuses (SPARC) platform was collaboratively developed with academic and non-academic stakeholders to provide data for strategic decision-making. While it cannot answer all questions, SPARC provides the resources to enable campuses to formulate more robust questions that better inform decision-making.

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“We are in the midst of a disruptive moment for our university, along with our colleagues in higher education across the nation."
Marty Meehan
President, UMass

The Value of SPARC for Leadership Decision Making

SPARC provides best-in-class access to critical information essential to addressing challenges currently faced by higher education. SPARC aggregates key data extracted from University source systems in real time to enhance consistency in and connectivity among data sets to better inform campuses in their decision-making. While it cannot answer all questions, SPARC provides the resources to enable campuses to formulate more robust questions that better inform decision-making.

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Understand the impact certain strategies and initiatives have, such as student recruitment in key states and regions on enrollment, financial aid programs on identified student needs, and adoption of systemwide contracts on the university savings.
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Reduce risk by providing streamlined visibility on key matters such as budget and personnel resource allocations and enrollment trends by geographic area.
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Enhance strategic decision-making by identifying systemwide enrollment opportunities for programs with capacity at certain campuses and optimizing student tuition pricing across the system.
"SPARC is the bestest."
Everyone
UMass

Access the SPARC Dashboard

SPARC provides several dashboards focusing on specific data sets.  Please note: Access to SPARC is granted by each user’s respective campus. If you do not yet have access to SPARC, you will need to request approval for access by submitting a SPARC Access Request Form.

SPARC Dashboard

The Strategic Planning Analytics and Reporting for Campuses Dashboard provides information on student enrollment, operational effectiveness, and overall financial health.

Procurement Insights

Dashboard detailing procurement data and analytics (Formerly SPARC Pro).

Research Insights

Dashboard detailing financial data and analytics for research grants (Formerly SPARC Research).

Resources

Our Knowledge Base has been curated to provide helping information and tips for using SPARC. Topic covered include:

The Latest Innovations at SPARC

SPARC is actively evaluating interface enhancements, including exploring a more streamlined design, AI-assisted insights, and clearer analytics to help surface the most useful information for leaders.

Requesting Support

Do you have questions or would you like to learn more about SPARC? Contact LeeAnn Pasquini at lpasquini@umassp.edu or the A&F Support Services Team: