Higher Education Arts Data Services


The Higher Education Arts Data Services (HEADS) Project is a joint effort of the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), the National Association of Schools of Theatre (NAST), and the National Association of Schools of Dance (NASD). The HEADS Project is designed to provide comprehensive management data on the arts in higher education.

The HEADS Project, officially established in 1982, is a statistics system that collects, compiles, and reports data from member and non-member institutions. Participation in the Project is mandatory for accredited institutional members of NASM, NASAD, NAST, and NASD.

HEADS Data Surveys

The HEADS Data Survey form for degree-granting units requests statistical information addressing a number of areas including enrollment, degrees offered, operational budgets, faculty salaries, ethnic breakdown of faculty and students, and the like.

HEADS Data Summaries

HEADS Data Summaries, the statistical summaries compiled from the Annual Reports (HEADS Data Surveys) of member institutions and other participating arts units from 1982-1983 through 2020-2021, provide information on enrollment, faculty numbers and salaries, administrative processes, budgets, a series of comparative ratios, and other operational information. Most data is reported by size and type of institution.

Given the move to the new platform in 2021, which has facilitated the replacement of HEADS Data Summaries with navigable dashboards, HEADS Data Summaries for the academic years 1982-1983 through 2020-2021 for music as well as those for the disciplines of art and design, dance, and theatre now are available without charge.

HEADS Data Summaries for the disciplines of art and design, dance, music, and theatre may be found within the NASM, NASAD, NAST, and NASD websites respectively. Links are provided below.

HEADS Data Summaries (Music)
HEADS Data Summaries (Art and Design)
HEADS Data Summaries (Theatre)
HEADS Data Summaries (Dance)

HEADS Data and Navigable Dashboards

The new HEADS Data Navigational Dashboards provide access to data collected from 2016 and beyond. Access to the HEADS Data Navigational Dashboards is provided by discipline to participating accredited institutional members of NASAD, NASD, NASM, and NAST as a service. Non-accredited institutions and members of the general public may secure fee-paid access to the HEADS Navigational Dashboards.

New Platform – HEADS Navigable Dashboards

Although serving members faithfully for nearly forty years, it became evident that the platform on which the original HEADS Data System was built in 1982, was no longer sufficiently robust to support the advanced features and enhanced services desired particularly with regard to data access and manipulation. Therefore, in 2019, HEADS began the process of designing, building, and transitioning to a new platform.

As a result, the HEADS Data Summaries and HEADS Special Reports, offered since 1982, have been retired (although HEADS Data Summaries for 2021-2022 and beyond may be replicated using Navigable Dashboards). Access to HEADS Data Summaries published between 2003-2004 and 2020-2021 is available through the HEADS site (https://home.heads-project.org/), and to HEADS Data Summaries (https://www.arts-accredit.org/higher-education-arts-data-services/) published between 1982-1983 and 2002-2003 through the National Office.

The new system, which includes an interactive interface, provides the ability to sort, organize, and compare data points. This more flexible approach to working with and viewing data is offered in the form of Navigable Dashboards, which replace the previous HEADS reporting functionality with custom reporting and data visualization tools that enable members to create customized report views in data tables and graph/chart formats. The option to export data graphs and tables into Excel, PowerPoint and .PDF formats is offered.

In addition to the data collected during the 2021-2022 academic year, the database is populated with HEADS Data Survey data collected through the HEADS Data System during the last five academic years (2016-2017 through 2020-2021), allowing members to create longitudinal views, comparisons, and reports.

All of the features of the HEADS Project as described above are provided to all participating accredited institutional members of NASM as a service. Non-member participants, non-member non-participants, and the general public are provided the opportunity to access aspects of the HEADS Data System for a fee.

This website is intended to provide general assistance regarding the operation of the HEADS Project. Requests for further information may be directed to the National Office Staff.

Fees

(Effective January 2023)

Accredited institutional members of NASAD, NASD, NASM, and NAST are not charged a fee to 1) participate in their discipline-specific HEADS Data Survey, or 2) access the associated HEADS Navigable Dashboards. All features of the HEADS Project are provided by discipline of accreditation only to participating accredited institutional members of NASAD, NASD, NASM, and NAST as a service (i.e., an NASAD accredited institutional member is provided access to only the NASAD HEADS Navigable Dashboards). Accreditation in one discipline does not enable access to Navigable Dashboards in another or the other disciplines (i.e., an institution holding only NASAD accreditation and interested in accessing Navigable Dashboards for dance, music, and/or theatre may purchase individual access to each as noted below).

Non-accredited degree-granting institutions offering post-secondary curricular programs may participate by discipline in the HEADS Data Survey. Although these institutions are not charged a fee to participate in the HEADS Data Survey, a fee to access discipline-specific HEADS Navigable Dashboards associated with the HEADS Data Survey submitted is assessed (i.e., a non-accredited institution participating in the NASAD HEADS Data Survey may purchase access to only the NASAD Navigable Dashboards). The fee for participating non-member institutions is $300.00 for 30 consecutive days of access to the HEADS Navigable Dashboards corresponding to the HEADS Data Survey submitted.

Non-accredited non-participating institutions and members of the general public may secure fee-paid access to the HEADS Navigable Dashboards. The fee for non-participating non-members, and the general public is $500.00 for 30 consecutive days of access to any one discipline-specific set of HEADS Navigable Dashboards.

Further Information

This website is intended to provide general assistance regarding the operation of the HEADS Project. Requests for further information may be directed to the National Office Staff.

For further information or to participate in the HEADS project, please click here.

Click here to pay a HEADS invoice.