Case Study: Sophia University achieves data-driven admissions and expanded institutional research with Tableau Software

Sophia University Tableau broadens perspectives, promotes IR activities

Sophia University, a leading private Japanese university founded in 1913 and part of the Top Global University Project, created an Institutional Research (IR) team to strengthen campus management and globalization efforts. The team struggled with time-consuming, manual analysis in Access and Excel and needed a way to share and analyze large, cross-departmental datasets to inform decisions on admissions, curriculum and administration.

By adopting Tableau and training staff university-wide, Sophia rapidly began visualizing complex admissions data—linking applicants’ high‑school ratings, TEAP English scores and post‑enrollment performance—to redesign admission policies. The tool accelerated IR work, increased data-driven discussion across departments, justified expanding Tableau within two months, and helped spark broader interest in TEAP adoption among other universities.

Sophia University

Takashi Irohara

Department of Information and Communication Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology