University Handbook, Section L: Academic Policy
(December 2024)
Program Review Policy
Overview:
L1 Program review at Kansas State University (University) aligns long-term strategic planning and goals for academic program health and excellence with annual assessment of progress and activity towards these goals. As such, the program review asks that faculty establish a vision for their academic programs, concrete goals, and annual action plans to achieve these goals.
Program Vision and Goals:
L2 Academic units that offer credentialed degrees will develop a vision and concrete goals for their programs based on university, college, and/or department strategic plans. Program goals will be reported through the University Program Review process. Accredited programs will use the same vision and goals submitted for accreditation.
Annual Program Review:
The program review process at K-State is named Academic Program Review and Revitalization (APRR).
Annual Action Plans:
L3 Each year, faculty will discuss a data report prepared and provided by the Office of Data, Assessment, and Institutional Research (DAIR) alongside their program vision and goals and other relevant information. Using the information, each department head or program director will submit a report on the faculty conversation and analyze the program’s health and demonstrate and plan for continuous improvement. A university undergraduate program assessment team and the Graduate Council Assessment and Review Committee (ARC) will evaluate the program reviews and suggest future action as appropriate. The DAIR office will collect the reports and make them available to College deans and the Dean of the Graduate School for review.
Accredited programs will complete the annual program review report except during their accreditation reporting year(s), during which they will submit to the Office of Assessment what they submit to their accrediting body in place of the annual program review report.
Program Review Assessment:
L4 The University program review process will be assessed every five years and will be adjusted as needed. In addition, the Provost will present the University’s program review policy and process to the Kansas Board of Regents at five-year intervals, beginning in Academic Year 2024-2025.
Both the five-year University program review and annual APRR report assessments will be conducted by the Office of Assessment in the Office of Data, Assessment, and Institutional Research (DAIR) in coordination with the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Innovation (VP AAI) or their designee.
The undergraduate program APRR reports will be reviewed by an Undergraduate APRR Review Committee comprised of representatives from each of the colleges and schools offering undergraduate programs. Members of this committee will serve three-year terms. During the inaugural year, members of the committee will be assigned staggered service times, from one- to three-years. The committee will be chaired by the VP AAI or their designee.
The graduate program APRR reports will be reviewed by the Graduate Council Assessment and Review Committee (ARC) members as described in the Graduate Handbook.
An analysis of all review findings will be created by DAIR’s assessment team and provided to the Provost or their designee.
Additional review:
L5 The Provost‘s Office may conduct in-depth review of academic programs in circumstances such as, but not limited to, significant changes in the program’s health and viability, requests from the College and/or the Graduate School, changes in KBOR rules and expectations, and inconsistent participation in annual program review.