Maryland Annual Collections - MAC2

Enrollment Information System (EIS) Description (PDF)

A. Collection Description     

As the foundation of MHEC’s Maryland Annual Collections (MAC), EIS, originally a fall term only collection, has evolved over the years and in 2013 a major revision referred to as MAC2 occurred.  EIS was redesigned to expand enrollment reporting from a single term to four terms (summer, fall, spring and winter) to provide a year-round scope of student enrollment. In addition, the revised EIS collection includes more demographic information and identification fields that are used to link student data across other MAC2 collection systems.  This data also aids in the longitudinal effort to match higher education data with K-12 and workforce data.  Detail on student enrollment enables MHEC to report on retention, analyze progress toward degrees, and student transfer to and from colleges. 

B. Adhere to Due Dates and Record Frequency

            Due Dates:                              Summer/Fall Due Date:        November 15^th

                                     Winter/Spring Due Date:     April 1^st

 

            Collection Period:                  Summer/Fall:                        July 1st – December 31^st

                                                Winter/Spring                       January 1^st – June 30^th

            Record Frequency:               One record per student per term  

Each file for each term is submitted separately.  Do not submit a file that contain records for more than one term.  For example, the Summer and Fall term files are two separate files that are both due by November 15^th.  Do not submit a file that contains both summer and fall records in a single file.

C. Comply with the Selection Criteria

1.      Who to include:

      a.       Students at all academic levels as of census date (undergraduates and graduates)

      b.      Students who are enrolled at the reporting institution and any off-campus center or  branches.

      c.       Students who exclusively audit classes

      d.      Students who exclusively attend remedial courses

      e.       Students who attend any time frame within the reporting term

      f.        Students who are concurrently enrolled in high school and college and not yet graduated from high school (dual enrollment or early middle college)

            g.       Students who are taking credit-bearing courses but are non-degree seeking

2.      Who to exclude:

      a.       Students who fully withdraw before the end of the add/drop period

      b.      Students who are studying abroad (e.g., at a foreign university) where enrollment at the institution serves as an administrative record and the fee is nominal

            c.       Students enrolled in any branch campus located in a foreign country

            d.       Students who are enrolled exclusively in non-credit continuing education courses

D. Data Collection Websites, Emails, and Responsibilities

To secure and ensure data collection integrity, it takes the cooperation of each institution partnering with the MHEC team to manage collections.   Websites, specific email addresses, and established responsibilities all work together to offer guidance for data collections, reporting problems or concerns, and outlining due diligence necessary for successful data submissions and management.  Detailed information about the websites, emails and responsibilities can be found on the responsibilities page of the data website.

E. Follow the File Layout

The EIS file layout can be found on the documentation page.  The required format is comma-separated values (CSV), which means each data element is separated by commas and the file extension is .csv.  Data element submission details for the file layout relies exclusively on MHEC’s online data dictionary.  The layout provides the item number, field length parameters, data type, name and the data definition (DD) link to the data dictionary for comprehensive, up-to-date data element guidance, explanations, and examples in some cases. 

F. Include the Header Record

The EIS header record can be found on the documentation page.  It is required as part of the uploaded .csv file.  It is critical that the uploaded header match MHEC’s header for data editing purposes.  Headers that do not match create errors in the validation process.

H. Transfer the File to MHEC

To transfer a .csv file to MHEC, user credentials are required.  File transfers between higher education institutions in Maryland and the Commission are secure.  Please use the prescribed secure file transfer process and refrain from emailing submissions.  The File Transfer page has different functional areas.  Select the “Maryland Annual Collection 2 (MAC2)” link to begin the file transfer process.   Use “P” to preface the User ID credential.  Select the option to perform either a preliminary edit or an official submission after editing is complete.  Complete the form for the upload and include comments if necessary.

I. Perform File Editing Procedures

The submission process provides editing guidelines that includes an edit report for the purpose of reviewing and verifying data submitted.  The report offers frequency distribution counts on selected variables that can be used to verify data counts.  The edit program also checks records for proper data element ranges and position.  If there are fatal errors or warnings, an explanation will be associated with the infraction and corrections should be made before a subsequent preliminary edit resubmission is performed.  The correction and resubmission process should be repeated until the file is free of errors.  Before submitting the official version of the file, internal institutional edit confirmations should be performed to check frequency output against uploaded data to verify the accuracy and completeness of the data.  At the time of the official submission, if there are remaining fatal errors or warnings on the edit report that cannot be addressed with a correction, then comments with a detailed explanation from the institution must be included in the comments section of the upload form.

J. Check MHEC Internal Validations

The EIS Stata syntax code used for validations can be found on the documentation page.  Stata code is used to validate file submissions.  Additional validation testing may be completed contingent upon the results of this baseline code.  New validation steps may be added over time as the scope of the collection changes.

K. Data Cookbook

Data Cookbook is MHEC’s MAC2 On-Line Data Dictionary.  It contains all data elements used in all unit record data collections managed by MHEC.  On the “Functional Areas” tab, under "Sharing" in the far right column select the definitions link to view the data elements for one of the MAC2 collections.  Each data element name is listed in alphabetical order with its functional definition.

To contact MHEC for questions or support, submit an email to mac2help.mhec@maryland.gov.