Enhancements to SPARC

SPARC was collaboratively developed to provide data for strategic decision-making from various source systems, helping campus leadership measure impact, identify areas of strength and opportunity, and drive coordinated decisions. To ensure SPARC empowers you with clear visibility into enrollment trends, operational effectiveness, and financial health, we actively evaluate interface enhancements to highlight the most relevant information. 

Below is a sample of recent updates to the SPARC dashboard in 2026.

Summary Analysis Redesign

The Summary Analysis tab redesign is live in SPARC production! The SPARC team has worked to overhaul the Summary Analysis tab to represent high-level visuals that can be found in greater detail throughout the rest of the SPARC dashboard. Stakeholder feedback informed the new design with the intention to tell a story through the sequencing of the views of the data. 

The Summary Analysis tab now hosts the following views in production:

1. Revenue by Category: Ability to toggle by Category or Revenue & Expenses
2. Gross and Net Tuition & Fees Revenue: Ability to toggle Net Tuition & Fees by Academic Career or Residency
3. Grants Revenue: Ability to toggle by Sponsor Type
4. Expenses & Employee FTE Overview: Ability to toggle by Category or Revenue & Expenses
5. Total Payroll and Total FTE
6. Faculty Tenure Status
7. Credits Taken by Academic Career: Ability to toggle FTE Type by Credits Taken, Course Enrollments, Unique Class Participants, or Student FTE – Financial
8. Credits Taken by Residency
9. Credits Taken by Mass CC Transfers
10. Enrollment Change Highest/Lowest 10 by Department: Ability to toggle by Fiscal Year and the ability to toggle by Department or College/Division

Research Data in SPARC

Research information is now available in SPARC. While SPARC Research is being relaunched as Research Insights, the SPARC team has incorporated Research data in the Other Revenue tab in SPARC. 

In production, you can now find views for:

1. Total Grants Revenue
2. Grants Revenue by Sponsor Type: Ability to toggle between Prime vs. Direct Sponsor
3. Top 10 Prime Sponsors by Grants Revenue

For greater detail into Research data, please see Research Insights (formerly SPARC Research).

Financial Aid Data Quality Improvements

The SPARC project team has worked to identify and resolve financial aid data quality issues. Work is continuing to assess and improve data quality within SPARC.