Academic Program Review
The goals of Academic Program Review (APR) are two-fold. First and foremost, this activity is used to facilitate an academic unit's continuous improvement and strategic planning that reflects relevant trends and institutional priorities and results in quality education for students.
Secondly, academic program reviews serve the purpose of satisfying the Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE) and the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) requirements for the accreditation of programs.
Academic program reviews are admittedly time-consuming for units, for faculty, and for administrators. However, if done properly, they provide a number of positive benefits, including:
- Opportunity for self-assessment: ensure that each program systematically takes time to step back from everyday challenges to evaluate its strengths, weaknesses, curriculum, and progress. This process lays the foundation for the development of plans and priorities for the unit.
- Vehicle to inform university-wide and unit planning: recommendations derived from academic program reviews are systematically integrated into the plans and budget requests for the various schools and administrative areas.
- Communication: academic program reviews foster communication within units, between chairs/directors and college deans, and with the central administration. The process also provides an opportunity for each member of a unit to be heard.
- Increased external visibility: the academic program review process itself attracts attention by bringing frequent visitors to campus, and has facilitated many collaborative relationships with other institutions.
This site serves as a collection of resources that units, reviewers, and the public can refer to for information regarding the academic program review process. It brings together campus sources and contacts, provides critical documents needed to meet the requirements of the review, general guidance, and answers to frequently asked questions. These pages will be continuously updated and enhanced with new information or additional requests. To submit information requests or if there are additional questions concerning academic program reviews please send them to AAL Program Review.