Common Questions
Why do programs have to undergo Program Review?
Program Review is a vital process at APU, and within higher education in general. It enables the University, through the Schools and Colleges and their departments, to examine the effectiveness of all its academic programs. It also helps to strengthen and maintain the University's curriculum within a faith-based context by generating and pursuing informed recommendations related to student learning, program design, faculty effectiveness, and resource allocation aimed at achieving our University mission and strategic plan. Further, Program Review provides the opportunity to demonstrate our educational effectiveness to ourselves, our students, our accrediting agencies, and the various communities that we serve. Consequently, Program Review is an essential and systematic periodic process in which all academic programs participate.
How do I know when my next Program Review will happen?
Program Reviews happen every 7 years for academic programs that are not accredited by an external, discipline-specific body. For those that have external accreditation, APU Program Review happens the academic year after the initial or reaffirmation report is submitted to the accrediting body. (See question #3 below).
To see when a particular program or department is scheduled for the next Program Review please review this Program Review Calendar.
What are the steps and timeline of Program Review?
The steps and timeline for Program Review can be found in the Program Review General Timeline document. To download a copy of this document, please click the link.
In the Fall semester preceding the creation of your Program Review, someone from the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment will reach out to your department Chair or Program Director to schedule an initial training and information meeting. Timelines, steps, and documents are discussed and explained at this time.
The timeline and steps for Program Review are also explained in greater detail in the Program Review Handbook.
I have an external accreditor. Do I have to do APU's Program Review?
Yes, but it is modified to eliminate redundancy between the external accreditation report and APU's Program Review.
APU's Program Review takes place the academic year after the external accreditation reaffirmation report is due. Once that report is completed, the APU program fills out a "Pre-vetting Worksheet" that goes through each question in the APU Program Review Template and provides space for the program/department to specify if the question was answered in the external reaffirmation of accreditation report. The Pre-Vetting Worksheet is submitted to the Program Review Committee for review. The PRC will then accept or reject the answers provided for each question. Every question that is approved for "pre-vetting" by the PRC does not need to be answered by the program/department on the Program Review Template. For disciplines with extensive external accreditation standards it is possible that upwards of 80-90% of the APU Program Review can be "pre-vetted" out, making APU's processes and expectations far shorter than normal.
If I have a question during the creation of my Program Review documents, who should I contact?
The Program Review process at APU is overseen by the Director of Curricular Effectiveness, who reports to the Accreditation Liaison Officer. Current staff who work with Program Review at APU are:
Jeff Tirrell, PhD, Director of Curricular Effectiveness
Katie Meers, MBA, Program Coordinator
Stephanie Juillerat, PhD, Accreditation Liaison Officer
Ritchie Fuentes, MS, Institutional Research and Assessment Coordinator
Who sees my Program Review once it is completed?
Program Review documents are reviewed by or available to:
the Department Chair or faculty (reviewed)
the Dean of the submitting program or department, or their appointee for assessment-related materials (reviewed)
the Program Review Committee for the academic level (reviewed)
the faculty Studies Council for the academic level (available)
the APU Assessment Committee (available)
the Provost or Provost's Office designee (available)
external accrediting bodies, such as WSCUC (available)
OIRA personnel (available)
University leadership (available by specific request)
Is Program Review different from annual assessments and data collection?
Yes. Program Review happens once every 7 years, or the academic year immediately following the submission of an external accrediting body's reaffirmation report. Annual assessment and data collection is just that - annual - and far less comprehensive in nature. However, annual assessment results and findings serve as part of the raw data that finds its way into Program Review. Thus annual data collection and assessment should always be done with Program Review in mind.