*3.4. Collaborative Comparative Efforts*

Understanding the parameters of higher education in international contexts is necessary to make sense of how institutional data are developed and used. While sociopolitical and cultural variability exists in countries around the world, data are becoming more prominent in higher education institutions. From here, institutions and countries may be able to collaborate to compare data and seek out equity-based solutions to interinstitutional or intercontinental problems.

It is important to note that although countries have generated institutional data, the contexts in which they use this data vary; for instance, in Europe and Asia, these institutional data systems are focused on public policies [21]. According to Lepori et al. (2022), higher education in Asia is often compared to examples from China and Thailand in that this type of training and education is extensive and diverse. There has been an increase in higher education in Asia and as such, there is more emphasis on discussing institutional data [21].

Lepori et al. (2022) indicated that the institutional data in the United States, Europe, and Asia contain similar information that is required by the state (education and existing higher education resources), and these data are equally important as the data from UN-ESCO and OECD [21]. This is indicative of the need for collaborative comparative efforts to move forward in the development of appropriate and relevant institutional data for high education.
