Talking to Your IR Data Team About Outcomes Data

FOR CAREER CENTER TEAMS

If your institution's First Destination Survey (or equivalent) outcomes data lives with Institutional Research, the registrar, or another office rather than career services, you'll likely need to make an internal request before you can upload it into uConnect. This guide walks you through how to start that conversation, what to say about uConnect and data security, and how to field the questions you're most likely to get back.

Before You Reach Out

A short framing conversation with your own contact goes a long way before you send anything. A few things to keep in mind:

• You don't need to become a data security expert. This guide gives you enough to speak confidently, and your Customer Success Manager (CSM) is always available to join a call if things get more technical.
• Frame the ask as a career services initiative, not a data-sharing risk. You're not asking IR to publish anything publicly — you're asking them to share data that already exists into a system your institution already uses and controls.

Why This Matters: Making the Case to IR

If your IR contact needs more than “we'd like to have this,” lead with what actually changes once the data is uploaded. This is the strongest, most concrete part of the ask — use it.

It's the only way AI Search can answer the question students ask most

AI Search is now live on your Virtual Career Center, and it can already answer a wide range of career questions in natural language. Read more about how AI Search can answer outcomes-based questions once outcomes data is uploaded. But there's one category it cannot answer without outcomes data — and it happens to be one of the questions students ask most often:

• “Where do business graduates from my school end up?”
• “What industries do students in my major typically go into?”
• “What companies hire from our campus?”

Without First Destination Survey data uploaded, these questions come back with nothing — the platform only pulls from resources published in your virtual career center, so if the data isn't there, AI Search will provide a limited response. Once it's uploaded, students get answers grounded in what actually happened to real graduates of your institution — something no general AI tool can offer, because ChatGPT and similar tools simply don't have access to your institution's outcomes data. That's a distinction worth naming directly to IR: this isn't a nice-to-have, it's the difference between a fully useful platform and one with a visible gap.

It turns data IR already has into something people can actually use

At most institutions, outcomes data technically exists but isn't easy to find for the people who want to use it — it lives in a spreadsheet, an IR dashboard, or a PDF that isn't accessible for students making decisions at the moment. Uploading it into uConnect doesn't create new data or new work for IR to generate; it makes data IR already collects usable by the people asking for it:

• Students can ask about it conversationally through AI Search, right when they're weighing career decisions.
• Faculty and academic advisors can point students to it when discussing career paths.
• Prospective students exploring your institution can see real, institution-specific placement outcomes.

This is also a case worth making on IR's own terms: uploading the data populates a visual outcomes dashboard inside the admin platform — charts, year-over-year trends, patterns by program or major — which can be a genuinely useful reporting asset for IR's own purposes, not just career services'. Even if the data is managed by IR in a Tableau of PowerBI dashboard, it can still be featured in your uConnect platform and is worth the conversation for ensuring it is there at a minimum, and in a future state, discussing a version of this data being uploaded into uConnect into addition to these visualizations.

What this doesn't require from IR

• No new reformatting — whatever format the data is already in is fine; the uConnect team can handle cleaning and formatting it for upload.
• No public-facing decision — this isn't a marketing or website publication, so it typically doesn't need to go through whatever approval process governs public release of outcomes data.
• No irreversible choice — IR/your institution can start with the admin dashboard only and add AI Search later, or exclude specific years or programs from the start.

How to Describe uConnect

IR and data teams likely haven't interacted with uConnect directly and won't be familiar with career-services language, so keep this simple and factual. Here's language you can use or adapt:

A couple of facts worth having ready if they ask for more detail:

• uConnect is a service provider, not a data owner. uConnect operates as a contracted service provider (a “processor” under state privacy laws, and a “school official” with legitimate educational interest under FERPA). Your institution directs what data is collected and how it's used — uConnect doesn't make that call independently.
• It's covered by your existing agreement. The relationship with uConnect is governed by a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) that already covers other student data in the platform. Outcomes data would fall under that same agreement — this isn't a new contract.

Reassuring Them on Data Ownership & Control

This is usually the most important point to lead with: your institution owns and retains access to all data entered into uConnect, including outcomes data. uConnect processes it on your institution's behalf and as directed — it never becomes uConnect's data. Points worth having on hand:

• Your institution controls what data is collected and how it's used.
• uConnect does not sell student data — and never has. Its business model is built on providing services to universities, not monetizing student information.
• uConnect does not share data with advertisers or marketing companies, does not provide student information to employers without consent, and does not use data for marketing purposes outside the platform.
• Any data your institution shares can later be corrected or deleted through the same channels used for other student records already in the platform.

Reassuring Them on Security

If your contact wants specifics on how uConnect protects data, please share our privacy policy, along with the following highlights:

• uConnect complies with FERPA and applicable state student data privacy laws, including the CCPA/CPRA (California), New Jersey's Student Data Privacy Law, and comparable regulations elsewhere.
• Data is encrypted both in transit and at rest.
• Access is restricted through role-based access controls and authentication requirements.
• uConnect undergoes regular security audits and vulnerability testing, and requires mandatory privacy/security training for all staff.
• Systems are continuously monitored for unauthorized access, with a documented incident response process — including notification to university partners within 72 hours of discovering a breach.

uConnect holds TX-RAMP certification (Texas's state cloud security risk and authorization program) and has completed the HECVAT (Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit) — the standard higher-ed vendor security questionnaire. If your IR team wants a copy, they (or you) can email security@gouconnect.com to request it directly.

What Data You'll Need, and How It's Used

You'll want to request your institution's existing First Destination Survey (or equivalent) outcomes data — whatever your office already collects, in whatever format you already have it. From there, you have two options: you can upload the data yourself by following uConnect's formatting guidelines, or you can request help from uConnect's support team or your CSM to prepare the file for you. Neither path requires IR to reformat anything on their end.

Employment outcomes data may include job title, employer name, salary/compensation, employment start date and location, and job offer information — gathered through your institution's existing survey process. This data helps you assess program effectiveness and gives students institution-specific career insights, and can be shared back with your institution in individual and aggregate form.

How This Powers AI Search

Once uploaded, outcomes data becomes available to your VCC's AI Search feature, letting students ask natural-language questions (for example, “what do biology graduates from this school do after graduation?”) and get answers grounded in your institution's actual outcomes data. This is often the most persuasive part of the pitch — it's worth mentioning early if you sense the ask itself needs a stronger “why.”

• AI Search delivers written, conversational answers — not raw data exports or downloadable files.
• Privacy threshold: at least 10 data points per major are required before outcomes data for that major will ever surface in an AI Search response. This exists specifically to prevent a response from being based on a sample small enough that an individual student could be identified.

No individual identifiers: student identifiers are never surfaced in AI Search responses. Uploaded data is processed to produce aggregate insights only.

No model training: outcomes data is not used to train any AI model. This falls under uConnect's responsible AI approach — query data is processed by Anthropic (uConnect's AI subprocessor) under contractual terms that prohibit using the data for model training or any purpose beyond delivering the requested response.

A Nuance Worth Knowing: Data Retention

This one occasionally comes up with more data-governance-minded contacts, so it's worth understanding before you're asked. Active outcomes data is retained according to your institution's own data retention policy — uConnect doesn't set retention terms unilaterally.

After a student's account is deprovisioned (for example, after graduation), their active account goes away — but we intentionally hold onto 3 identifiers (email, SSO login ID, uConnect unique ID) specifically so that future outcomes data can still be matched to the right student record.

So the flow looks like this:

1. Student graduates → account deprovisioned

2. The institution later submits outcomes data (job placement, salary, etc.)

3. uConnect uses those retained identifiers to link that outcomes data back to the correct student — even though the student is no longer an active user

Without retaining those identifiers, there'd be no way to connect post-graduation outcomes data to the right person. The data itself doesn't disappear — it just needs a "hook" to attach to the correct record. That's the whole reason for the limited retention.

If asked, you can point to uConnect's Privacy Policy for the full disclosure, or loop in your CSM to connect them with uConnect's support team directly.

What the Process Looks Like for You

1. Request the most recent outcomes data export from IR or the registrar, in whatever format they already have it on hand.

2. Format the file yourself using uConnect's First Destination Formatting Guidelines or the MBA/Specialty Master's Formatting Guidelines, or share the raw file with uConnect's team and let them clean and format it for you.

3. Decide what to include. Before or after upload, you can exclude specific class years or programs, or choose to keep the data visible only in your internal admin dashboard without including it in AI Search at all — a good option if you'd rather start conservatively.

4. Upload and index. Once uploaded, AI Search typically reflects the new data shortly after the platform finishes indexing the file.

5. Adjust anytime. You can add, exclude, or remove data from AI Search at any point afterward without affecting any other part of the platform.

Making the Ask: Email Template

When you're ready to reach out to IR, here's a template to start from — customize the details to fit your relationship with your contact and your institution's tone.

Common FAQs

Here's what to say if these come back at you — feel free to copy and paste these in an email:

“Is this a new vendor or a new data-sharing agreement?”

No. If your institution already uses uConnect's Virtual Career Center, this falls under the existing agreement and Data Processing Agreement already in place.

“Will this data be sold or used for advertising?”

No. uConnect does not sell student data and does not use it for advertising or marketing purposes outside the platform — this is a standing company-wide commitment, not a setting that can be changed.

“Could an individual student be identified from AI Search responses?”

Outcomes data only surfaces in AI Search once a major has at least 10 data points on file, specifically to prevent small-sample identification, and individual student identifiers are never included in AI Search responses.

“Do we have to share everything, or can we limit what's included?”

You can limit what's shared by class year or program, and you can choose to keep data visible only in your institution's internal dashboard without ever including it in AI Search.

“What happens to the data after a student graduates or leaves the institution?”

A limited set of identifiers (only university email, SSO user login ID, and uConnect unique ID) is retained solely to match future outcomes submissions to the correct student record, under your institution's own retention policy — this is documented in uConnect's Privacy Policy.

“Can we review uConnect's security documentation before agreeing to this?”

Yes. Email security@gouconnect.com to request access to uConnect's HECVAT, and it will be sent directly. uConnect also holds TX-RAMP certification.

When to Loop In Our Team

You don't have to handle every question solo. If IR wants more detail than you're able to give — legal specifics, a security walkthrough, or anything you're not fully sure how to answer — bring in your Customer Success Manager or loop in our uConnect Support Team. They're glad to join a call directly with your data team, and can route documentation requests (like the HECVAT) through security@gouconnect.com.