Academic Program Review at Truman

Program review is important for strategic planning and improvement, an opportunity for reflection, and to fulfill requirements for university accreditation. Truman strives to review approximately 20% of its programs each year such that all programs have been reviewed every five years in accordance with guidelines from the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development (MDHEWD)

The primary audience of the review is the faculty and program leadership, allowing for self-study and goal setting. Program review provides an opportunity to consider the evolution of programs, including new initiatives, streamlining and aggregation, and consideration of discontinuation. It also provides an opportunity to regularly collect important program information, such as faculty CVs and course-level syllabi.

Leaders of the School and University will be active participants in the review process. The executive summary should be useful for a variety of external audiences. The Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development (MDHEWD) may receive a copy of the complete review, and a review report must be presented to the Faculty Senate.

Some Truman programs have external program reviews mandated by national accreditors or other bodies. The objectives of these reviews are often similar but not aligned completely with Truman’s program review process. This program review process is separate from specialized accreditation review but should help position accredited programs to excel.

Goals
The five-year program review allows departments and programs to periodically achieve the following fundamental goals:
● Establish a departmental strategic plan for the upcoming five years with annual goals for all degree programs.
● Review and report on progress made in implementing the existing programmatic mission, strategic plan, and goals.
● Align departmental and programmatic efforts with Truman’s liberal arts and sciences mission, strategic plan, and other campus-wide initiatives and ensure that student learning and quality teaching remain the top priority at Truman.
● Create open conversations among program stakeholders, including faculty, staff, students, internal and external reviewers, administrators, and faculty governance.
● Encourage and support assessment, innovation, and progress.
● Ensure that documents such as faculty CVs, Skills Alignment Analysis, and course-level syllabi and course objectives are updated and readily available.

What is reviewed?
Individual program reviews are completed as components of a larger departmental review. This allows for department-wide strategic planning and assessment with program-specific goal setting. Because many data points are collected at the departmental level and faculty often contribute to a variety of programs within a department, separating data at the program level for a true program review is challenging. Data will be provided at the program level when available. The review should focus on the major degree programs (graduate and undergraduate), but also discuss minors, certificates and other credentials, contribution to the Dialogues, and other activities of the department.

The Dialogues and embedded Perspectives are not considered degree programs and are reviewed on a schedule mandated by UGC and Faculty Senate. This document is not meant to guide those reviews.