The PULSE Vision & Change Rubrics, version 1.0, assess life sciences departments' progress toward implementation of the principles of the "Vision and Change report." This paper reports on the development of the rubrics, their validation, and their reliability in measuring departmental change aligned with the "Vision and…

Economics departments are faced with growing demands to document what their graduates have learned on completion of the undergraduate major. The results of a national survey of economics department chairs in the United States reveal that nearly two-thirds of the departments have a formal assessment plan. There is substantial agreement on the most…

This article identifies concrete steps used at Argosy University/Orange County (Argosy or AUOC) to integrate assessment in daily institutional operations and utilize assessment data for educational and organizational improvements. Additionally, the article addresses the role of an institutional effectiveness committee in facilitating the…

Points our the reasons speech communication is particularly fortunate among academic fields today. Reviews criteria that will ensure the preservation of college programs: (1) quality of research; (2) interrelationship with other disciplines; (3) a balance between competence instruction and theoretical instruction; and (4) a public constituency.…

Human service program directors were surveyed to identify difficulties of bachelor's level mental health/human service programs that coexist with an accredited bachelor's level social work program. Of 12 universities where the programs coexist, a sample of 7 was investigated, using current college bulletins of the respective programs. Data were…

Typical characteristics of program reviews, illustrations of to whom the reviews relate in a university setting, and conditions and expectations that may enhance the use of the results of program reviews are described in this report. It is argued that program reviews do not serve all levels of a university equally; the primary beneficiaries of the…

Renewed interest in program reviews has developed in recent years as resources for higher education have declined and demand for accountability has increased. University-level program review and department and unit-level program review are discussed. (MLW)

An expanded program review process that includes qualitative, ethnographic, retrospective, and subjective data is described. At the University of Kansas, qualitative indicators were developed and methods were designed to implement them. Reviews were moved from a process of reacting to quantitative self-studies to a procedure that involved:…

College students responded to a questionnaire designed to measure students' satisfaction with their academic major programs. Hierarchical factor analyses producted four factors in both undergraduate and graduate samples: perception of value in program; satisfaction with instruction; satisfaction with faculty mentorship; and overall satisfaction…

Using aggregated data from each of four classical rankings of graduate programs in U.S. universities, it was found that the rankings of institutions in separate studies correlate significantly with each other and the results from the SDR model correlate significantly with the objective measures of academic honors, basic research, and research and…

Guidelines for conducting departmental reviews are presented to help review panels, departments being reviewed, and administrators. In planning a review, the following considerations are important: the purpose of the review and the terms of reference, the organization of the review and who will conduct it, and the information that will be…

Justifications for academic program review include a need for external accountability, administrative decision-making, and a definition of purpose. An overall coordinating group that will monitor the review, set policy, and bring together all of the diverse operations is needed. Guidelines and standards for the review procedure need to be…

The Florida Plan for systemwide academic program review is detailed in this report. Factors leading to the initiation of systemwide review, including population changes and the changing role of the predominantly black Florida A&M University, are discussed. The design and scope of the review process are explained and selection of consultants to…

Research by Conrad and Blackburn on program quality in master's departments at regional universities was replicated and extended. The present sample doubled the number of departments (from 45 to 81), increased the number of institutions (from 14 to 33), and added a different state (i.e., the original study consisted of two southern states). The…

Universite de Montreal has implemented a program review formula that is a standardized approach to relating program offerings, faculty resources, and institutional budgetary reduction requirements. The methodology was based on normalization of the number of credits that a unit is authorized to offer. For a typical degree program structure, the…