Academic Program Review

The purpose of the seven-year review of all undergraduate and graduate programs in a department/school is to engage faculty in a reflective process of thoughtful study and evaluation of program quality and alignment to East Carolina University’s values, mission, and commitments in support of our students and the region. Program review is an integral part of the university’s ongoing assessment and strategic planning processes designed to enhance the quality of all educational programs. Programs that are periodically reviewed by an external accrediting body are not part of the formal APR process described here. Rather, reports from these external accreditations satisfy program review reporting requirements and are archived by the SACSCOC liaison in Institutional Planning, Assessment, and Research (IPAR). In rare instances, units have both a specialized accreditation review and APR.  This happens when programs with multiple concentrations have a specialized accreditor for at least one concentration but not the other(s).

The review of programs without specialized accreditation is intended to help faculty and administrators gain an understanding of the following:

1. Purpose and outcomes for each degree and certificate program being reviewed;
2. Each program’s effectiveness in achieving its purpose and outcomes, along with overall quality;
3. The faculty’s vision for each program and improvement actions taken as a result of institutional and assessment data; and
4. Future programmatic improvements to the curriculum, pedagogy, and/or operational functions of the department.

Academic program review at ECU consists of two interrelated activities: on-site program review which occurs approximately every seven years for each program, and student learning outcomes assessment which is conducted on an ongoing basis. These two forms of reviews are interrelated in three ways: (1) analysis of what has been learned about program quality through assessment of student learning outcomes is an integral part of the seven-year review;(2) analysis of programmatic and operational outcomes beyond student learning provides the program an opportunity to examine and align its actions with priorities and strategic initiatives of the university and college; and (3) in both reviews, faculty report progress in implementing the action plan from the previous review and develop a new action plan.

Visit IPAR Business Intelligence App to assist with program assessment needs, and use the links below to find more information on guidelines, self-study samples, and schedules.

IR Support and Business Intelligence App

Self-Study Samples

Academic Program Review Dashboard

A list of educational programs that complete the ECU Academic Program Review process is available in both interactive dashboard and PDF formats:

1. Interactive Dashboard (includes programs accredited by specialized accrediting agencies and the academic program review schedule for programs that are not accredited by specialized accrediting agencies)
2. PDF versions of yearly Academic Program Review Schedules (below)

Specialized Accreditation/ECU APR Dashboard

Note: Dashboard may fail to load if an incompatible browser is used. Recommended browsers include: Chrome, Firefox, Safari.

Schedules

APR Visit Itinerary Sample