Abstract: Compared with the United States, the development of institutional research in Britain is tardy. From the historical origin, the early British “institutional research” activities included “individual university’s history” and “government reports”. But the “serious” institutional research originated in the process when the Britain government decided to boost the massification of higher education policy from 1963 to 1987. During that period, institutional research mainly focused on policy research on the system level which aimed to promote the “education equality” and pedagogical adjustment of the university to support “the new students” learning. Since the late 1980s, great changes on the relationship have taken place between the higher education institutions and the UK government. “Quality Assessment Movement” and “Public Accountability” have madea contribution to strengthening institutional research in universities and colleges. At the same time, the focus of institutional research has shifted from “equality” to “quality”. Much could be inspired and learnt from the experience of the institutional research in the UK for other European countries and for China to develop a formally constituted institutional research capacity.

Key words: institutional research, British higher education, equality, accountability, quality assessment