Wednesday, March 22, 2023

After a national search, Allan Aycock has been named the associate vice president for institutional research at the University of Georgia. The appointment is effective April 3, 2023.

Aycock has led the Office of Institutional Research as interim associate vice president since April 2022. During that time, he initiated the reorganization of office leadership, promoted improving task management, and represented OIR in presentations to campus leaders. 

At the same time, Aycock continued to serve as senior director for accreditation and institutional effectiveness, leading the 10-year reaffirmation of UGA's regional accreditation and supporting the development, implementation, and tracking of UGA's 2025 Strategic Plan. 

"Allan has dedicated most of his career to the service of the University of Georgia. In every position he has held, he has made the University better. Allan has been impressive as interim associate VP, and I have admired how he crafted a vision for the organization and assembled his team. I am delighted that he has agreed to serve permanently in this role," remarked Timothy Chester, the vice president for information technology and supervisor over this position.

As associate vice president for institutional research, Aycock will support the University's use of data and data analytics to attain UGA's scholarship, research, instruction, and public service and outreach goals. 

The Office of Institutional Research collects, organizes, maintains, and analyzes institutional and other data to support institutional management, operations, decision-making, and planning functions. The associate vice president for institutional research reports directly to the vice president for information technology. 

Aycock received his bachelor's in telecommunication arts from the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications and his master's in English and creative writing from the City College of New York. He came to UGA as an academic advisor and a degree program specialist in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences before becoming the program review and assessment coordinator in the Office of the Vice President for Instruction. 

He has taken on leadership roles in several other UGA offices, including as director for program review and assessment for the Office on Institutional Effectiveness and as the director for assessment and accreditation in the Office of Academic Planning.

In leading Institutional Research, Aycock said he hopes to build on the office's ability to develop predictive analytics to inform campus planning and decision-making. 

"At this moment, when higher education is under increasing pressure to demonstrate its value to individual students, to document its stewardship and return on public resources, I am energized by the opportunity to lead the Institutional Research team to help UGA meet these challenges and position itself strategically for the next decades using the best practices of evidence-based decision making."