Audit & Review

Purpose

Conducted within all instructional areas on a five-year cycle, the Audit and Review process facilitates continuous program improvement by:

• Identifying needs for further study and/or planning.
• Helping programs set priorities.
• Ensuring appropriate standards for program quality.
• Identifying needs and unique circumstances of specific programs.
• Identifying non-functional and unnecessarily duplicative programs.
• Identifying needs for structural changes in programs or administrative units.

Process and Timeline

Downloadable Graph

Self-Study 

When a program is schedule for Audit and Review, it composes a self-study. Authors often begin by consulting the self-study and final report from the previous Audit and Review process—see Self-Study FAQs for information on how to locate—and the Undergraduate Self-Study Instructions or the Graduate Self-Study Instructions.

In its self-study, the program covers the following areas:

• program purpose and overview, including program mission, goals, and accomplishments
• assessment of curriculum and student learning
• student recruitment, enrollment, retention and graduation
• resource availability and development

The program submits a self-study draft to the dean by October 1; it submits a final version to the Undergraduate or Graduate Audit and Review Committee by November 1.

Committee Draft Report

The Audit and Review Committee goes through a systematic process of evaluating a self-study.  Each member evaluates the self-study through a Qualtrics survey, and the committee meets to discuss survey output.  In a (draft) report on the self-study, which it submits to the dean and program coordinator or department chair, the committee recommends one of the following results:

1. Insufficient information in the self-study to make determination
   The program should revise and resubmit its self-study.
2. Continuation without qualification
3. Continuation with minor concerns
   At the committee’s discretion, the program may need to provide a progress report.
4. Continuation with major concerns in one or more of the four areas
   The program will submit progress reports that address the major concerns outlined by the review committee to the college dean and the Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.
5. Withhold recommendation for continuation and place program on probation
   At the committee's discretion, the program may need to complete another Audit and Review within 1-3 years.
6. Withhold recommendation for continuation, place program on probation, and recommend placing in receivership within college
   At the committee's discretion, the program may need to complete another Audit and Review within 1-3 years.
7. Non-continuation of program

This list of recommended results does not work as a grading scale. For example, “Continuation without qualification” is not equivalent to an A, and the requirement for a program to submit a progress report does not, in itself, suggest a below average program. However, the process does affirm a program receiving the result of "continuation without qualification" as exemplary.

Face-to-Face Meeting

The program coordinator/department chair, college dean, provost, and members of the Audit and Review Committee meet face-to-face to discuss the committee's draft report and determine recommended actions and results. The process is meant to be collaborative; during this meeting, parties may discuss discrepancies in how they understood or assessed the program.

Committee Final Report

In its final written report, the review committee summarizes the discussion at the face-to-face meeting, lists program strengths and weaknesses, and makes final determination on recommended actions and a recommended result.