For many Open Doors respondents, the release of institution-level data, particularly if broken down by country, is a highly sensitive issue. Therefore, it is important that the information collected be kept confidential. To do otherwise would compromise IIE’s ability to obtain accurate information and generate participation in the Open Doors surveys.

To balance IIE’s need to keep the data confidential with the needs of scholars, the media, and other interested organizations to obtain quality data on international student exchange, IIE creates custom analyses. IIE considers requests for custom analyses on a case-by-case basis. All requestors are required to sign a non-disclosure agreement that binds them to strict guidelines with respect to data usage. Generally, IIE will consider a request where the detailed data will be:

• Used for scholarly research, with the findings published in aggregate.
• Used by educational agencies for the express purposes of facilitating international student exchange.
• Used by a company or firm to facilitate student recruitment for employment in the students’ home countries or home regions. Purchasers of such reports must agree to respect students’ obligations to the sponsors of their U.S. study and/or to their own governments and confirm that they do not engage in discriminatory hiring practices.

IIE reserves the right to withhold data when the request is not deemed to be for an appropriate purpose.

Please note: Inquires for custom data requests made between September 15 and November 30 will be answered in December. Thank you for your understanding as the IIE Research team prepares for the Open Doors annual data release.

Submit a Custom Data Request