Notes From Strategic Conversation #5

9/11/04, BBC 32, 12:00 - 1:30PM

The Office of Graduate Studies and Research organized this forum which was designed to stimulate discussion among faculty around the issue of the effectiveness of our graduate programs. The information gleaned from this conversation will be used by the Office of Graduate Studies and Research and will be used in the accreditation review process which this year is focused on educational effectiveness. Thanks so much to those who participated, you've helped through this process point the way to the future and demonstrate that the campus can come together across divisions to collectively shape the future!

Summary of Group Discussions & Complete Set of Notes from Small Groups

The task for this conversation was to tackle two broad topics:

Quality of Graduate Programs

1. How do you currently assess the quality of the graduate programs?
2. How/where is this assessment information disseminated for programmatic review or use?
3. In what ways are the assessment data used to change an existing program? In other words, how do you “close the loop” for continuous graduate program improvement?
4. What changes are you considering, if any?

Enrollment Management Considerations

1. What is the student demand, faculty expertise (current and future), and regional demand for your graduate programs?
2. Do the graduate programs impact the undergraduate programs? If so, what are the impacts (please identify positive and/or negative impacts)?
3. How is the size of the graduate program and the undergraduate program managed, if at all?

Food for thought provided by GS&R included:

Current mechanisms used to address the quality of the graduate programs include the following:
i. Entrance requirements (e.g., GRE, TOEFL, GPA, or other)
ii. Course requirements (e.g., prerequisites, core courses, elective units, or other)
iii. Culminating experience (e.g., written or oral exam, thesis, or other)
iv. Exit requirements
v. Other?

Current and future trends as described by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) are to assess the quality of the graduate programs using the following:
i. Student learning objectives for the degree program
ii. Student learning objectives for courses in the degree program
iii. Post graduation reflections (alumni and employer surveys)
iv. Other?

Summary of Group Discussions

Coming Soon

Notes from Table Recorders - Coming ASAP

Table 1

Discussion began with why participants were in attendance and what they hoped to learn or contribute. Comments made include:

· Interest in the topic from an Academic Services perspective, and curious about the link at the Graduate level. Thinks that students often have no clue with respect to how theory relates to their discipline of study.
· There is a need to teach students how to do research.
· Some graduate programs will be required to complete a self study in the next year, and as a result, are up to their ears in assessment. They are not clear on what is needed, and hope to find out more about assessment. They plan to develop learning objectives for programs and all courses by Spring. This is in response to a change in assessment standards; it is the first time for this college to address this new and revised process of assessment.
· There are so many different types of graduate programs on campus, and learning how they are similar and how they are different is critical to understanding how the University functions.
· Students need to develop critical thinking skills for how to address new situations.
· In teaching entering students in business, it is evident that the students are highly motivated and eager to learn. It is important to maintain these characteristics.

Quality of Graduate Programs

How to assess the quality of the graduate programs? How and where is this assessment information disseminated for review or use? In what ways are the assessment data used to change an existing program? How do you “close the loop” for continuous graduate program improvement? What changes are you considering, if any?

· Is there any assessment of competence in working with information systems? In projects with paired students working on a topic, they often can find data, with no limit in source information. Approximately 60-70% find good data and understand the data.
· Capstone courses and comprehensive projects should be evaluated with respect to the ability to do research. There are librarians available to participate in new student orientations. Librarians can give library tours. Faculty should require references in papers being submitted.
· A problem is…What is an MBA? The type of content one should know is a given, but the criteria are not defined. This is one reason for the new assessment programs now in place.
· Testing is labor intensive and time consuming. It takes hours to properly test, grade, revise and teach proper writing and referencing skills.
· There is a lack of oversight with respect to classes currently approved to fill the graduate writing assessment requirement (GWAR). There is a huge variety in the number and types of assignments even in the same class with multiple sections, such as 100W.
· Starting in Spring, one college will require completion of a 200W class for fulfillment of the GWAR, and not allow classes that now cover it to count towards the GWAR.
· How do we assess if the GWAR is satisfied on the greensheet? by the course description? There is no guarantee that the materials stated on paper are being taught in reality.
· Graduate students sometimes complain about being taught by part time faculty with little practical experience. The graduate students are concerned about the quality of their program. Graduate students often don’t understand that small programs with a relatively small number of full time faculty often need a large base of part time faculty, especially if they teach classes used by other programs.
· In some programs, there is not enough time to teach all the areas needed to be covered. This can result in a lack of base knowledge needed to do methods work.
· In one higher education program, when a full-time professor left the gap was filled by an administration person. A similar thing happened in art history resulting in the hire of a part time faculty member who has been teaching for a long time and is an excellent faculty member.
· Should we assess faculty as we do programs and classes. After all, program assessment results are dependent on quality faculty.
· In looking at applied programs, part time faculty are generally experts in their field and have lots of knowledge on their subject.
· The Program Planning Committee looks at the faculty, their vita and other factors when reviewing programs.
· When assessing the faculty, you are also assessing the program.
· One concern is that assessment procedures require post-graduation assessment; how does one assess a student’s knowledge of material 5 years after they have completed the degree. The fact that they know or do not know the material may not be related to the program of study after that long a period of time.
· What about the 5-year post tenure review? It is generally not followed across campus. It is a policy that is in review by the Senate because when process was last revised, the Deans were omitted as a step in the review process. Prior to revision, a Dean reviewing a submittal could point out or make note of missing information such as lack of SOTES, no publications, etc. Now, the Dean is totally cut out.
· Self assessment by a faculty member in preparing a 5-yr post tenure review is a great benefit of the process.
In summary:
· The general sense is that the graduate programs are not being adequately assessed either college-wide or University-wide.
· Part of assessing graduate programs is assessing the faculty.
· Some aspects of the graduate programs are working in some colleges, and are not in others.

Enrollment Management Considerations

· When one table member first came to SJSU, there was no need to do any outreach as program recruitment was via word of mouth as the program was well known.
· How much are enrollment management efforts affected by students who are employees of SJSU? For one program, there was a decrease in enrollment following a shift to special session, as fee waivers and financial aid are not available for special session enrollment. This resulted in a large number of employees who were taking classes that were offered as part of a matriculated program to stop enrolling in classes now only offered via special session.
· It is important to consider the impact of new and/or growing graduate programs on other colleges and programs, on the library, on IT services, etc. This is done in part during the review of new programs by the Curriculum and Research Committee.
· It is also important to look at the ratio of full time to part time faculty in these programs.
· New and growing graduate program impacts on the undergraduate programs should also be determined. New graduate students are often conditionally classified and so have to take make-up classes that may include core program classes on the undergraduate level. Certification classes may also be required. Students entering a graduate program that do not have the appropriate bachelor’s degree often take 20-27 undergraduate units in make-up courses. Many also opt for a second baccalaureate degree.

Table 2

Quality of Graduate Programs

1. How do you currently assess the quality of the graduate programs?

· Student: Am I learning theories and information that is relevant to my area of focus?
· Who is hiring our students? Survey them. How well are our students doing? Do they know what they need to know?
· Feedback from graduate students – in the process of institutionalizing this. Currently a survey in the alumni magazine. (Required by accrediting body – Business)
· Needs to be more systematic across the colleges, possible managed from a University level. (graduates and employers)
· End of first-year review by faculty (school of art and design). May receive a warning leading to a closer watch by faculty for one year. Three year scheduled review.
· Using learning objectives for assessment varies across colleges. Those with accreditation bodies more engaged in assessing learning outcomes.
· Portfolio assessment
· Independent study students don’t bring classroom/studio space. More students than space.
· Hardly anything being done. Took 3 years just to get graduate committee to do an online survey (summer 04) and to date no analysis or review of that info has taken place or been shared with the faculty.

2. How/where is this assessment information disseminated for programmatic review or use?

· Information goes to Associate Dean.
· Graduate committee meets every 2 weeks as does the curriculum committee (art and design)

3. In what ways are the assessment data used to change an existing program? In other words, how do you “close the loop” for continuous graduate program improvement?

· 2 programs at risk of losing due to retirements. Art and Design
· Must react when requirements for CPA or taxation change- external drivers.
· Advisory boards have large influence on curriculum (Business)

4. What changes are you considering if any?

· How to get credit for tutorial/indep. study students in order to get space. (Art and Design)
· Fewer electives more required courses (resource issue, can’t afford to offer electives because they don’t fill up)
· Include requirements for mathematics (MBA Program)
· Implement the equivalent of 100W for graduate students – 200W
· New programs- M.A. in museum studies
· MFA in Graphic Design
· Electronic Arts degree
· Art and Design – Market driven by “prestige”, level of degree required for career
· Higher Ed program doing joint Ed. D. programs, M.A. in Higher Ed. up for question depending on resources.
· Grad programs used to get more per student, but now it is reduced- a resource issue that needs to be looked at.

Enrollment Management Considerations

1. What is the student demand, faculty expertise (current and future), and regional demand for graduate programs?

Demand
· Demand for Business- Accountancy program is fine (career switch program), Taxation program in very high demand, MBA is falling off but should pick up.
· Art and Design- high demand, accept ¼ applicants. Shifting to a more digital focus. Students moving a lot between disciplines. Competing with a pool of talent of 5-6 schools, trying to match the programs you offer with the students that you want in the program. Balancing demand with recruitment goals.
· Foreign students? Some increase in the business school. Not much change in Art and Design.
· Demand for M.A. Higher Ed is very high- cohort of approx. 35 students in 2003 with absolutely no marketing or publicity.

Faculty Expertise
· Art and Design is fine.
· Business has people in the community that can be brought in for most areas. However accreditation requires a certain percentage taught by Ph D’s which is a concern.
· Art and Design- Many faculty on early retirement, some on sabbatical, others tenure track. Very difficult to find faculty for design areas with cost of living in the valley.

2. Do the graduate programs impact the undergraduate programs? If so, what are the impacts (positive/negative)?
· Business- slight negative aspect, fee based program subsidizes undergrad program. Positive impact is great.
· Art and Design- grad program raises the quality because undergrads see the level of work from grad students. Undergrads and graduates are in the studios at the same time.
· Graduate Teaching Assistants for undergrad classes have been very valuable because they are screened well and meet the age and trends that the students are looking for.
· No entrance requirements, people come because “I didn’t have to take the GRE”. The skill levels vary widely. There are students there that don’t belong there. Faculty find it very difficult to teach these different skill levels.
· The lack of entry requirements has a net negative effect on the programs. Many programs have no GREs, no interviews.
· Pressure for FTES to keep numbers up- eroding standards.

3. How is the size of the graduate program and the undergraduate program and the undergraduate program managed, if at all?

· Business- done virtually independently. Classrooms are limited for MBA programs.
· Not managed at all. We are completely reactive. Whoever shows up is who enters our programs. Has a huge effect on undergrad programs when grad programs which are more expensive grow with no planning.

Foundation Sponsored Programs - How does the quality of our programs affect the capacity to bring in dollars?

· Value of instructor student relationships to be very highly valued.
· Allows faculty to have assistants at a high level engaged in research
· When graduate programs strong, capacity to bring in $$ increases

Table 3

Quality of Graduate Programs

1. How do you currently assess the quality of the graduate programs?
a. It was clear that programs with an external accrediting body had formal, systematic assessment procedures, whereas those without were much less structured (i.e surveys, entrance requirements, feedback from employers and Ph.D. programs)
b. Some programs use an Advisory Board for feedback.

2. & 3. How/where is this assessment information disseminated for programmatic review or use? In what ways are the assessment data used to change an existing program?
a. In some departments, course embedded assessment results in changes to the courses themselves, whereas program assessments occur every 5 years.
b. Other departments have not implemented assessment strategies enough to have anything to disseminate.
c. Information made available on the website (in some departments).

4. What changes are you considering making, if any?
a. Engineering is trying to model program off requirements from ABET for undergraduate majors.
b. A resource issue presented was that a fulltime coordinator is needed for the IRB.
c. Not clear all departments with less structured/developed assessment programs are interested in further development.

Enrollment Management Considerations

1. What is the student demand, faculty expertise (current and future), and regional demand for your graduate programs?
a. Demand determined by talking with professional community.
b. Used to visit regional graduate studies days, but not very beneficial.
c. Webpage has been very helpful for national and international recruitment.
2. Do the graduate programs impact the undergraduate programs? If so, what are the impacts (please identify positive and/or negative impacts)?
a. Try to make a conscious effort not to allow graduate program to “suck” too many resources from undergraduate programs.
b. Undergraduate programs benefit from research being conducted at the graduate level.

Out of time ….

Table 4

Quality of Graduate Programs

Entrance Requirements:

Transcripts missing, delays processing
Happening more at the GSR end than departmental end

Comm Studies does not require GRE.
Shouldn’t test scores be a requirement?
Is this a good predictor for admissions?

“formula” for admission

BioTech accepts GMAT as an alternative to GRE.
We shouldn’t rely on GPA alone, people change, personalities change, there are other factors

Does it hurt our image in some sort (not asking for certain test scores)
Screening barriers

Shouldn’t people be given the opportunity to succeed or fail?

Only Stanislaus requires GRE for ALL of their programs, they are more strict
Get serious people who are serious about graduate school.

RECL does not require GRE, in the end; this allows more students to later earn their PhD

Predictive value: best predictor for 1st year success is by looking at their upper division GPA
For those who have been out of school for awhile, entrance exams are better predictors

Post Graduation Reflections:

What happens to our Alumni? Do they get jobs? Where? How can this type of information be used?

Students ask him prior to applying into the BioTech program: Where have your graduates gone? What jobs are they offered?

Career Center does research on these questions, perhaps asking for their assistance may answer some of our questions.

Yes, but they focus more on undergraduates rather graduates.

Why do prospective students ask these questions? Is it to determine which campus to apply to?

Perhaps we need feedback from the employers. Whom do they recruit?

What are the number of our graduates continuing into PhD programs?

Does anyone track graduation/retention/statistics? Is it a direct measure of quality?

How do you currently assess the quality of your graduate program?

We depend on the 5-year program review and students’ report of satisfaction. Mostly positive compliments. We even receive checks.

Outstanding thesis award.
Standards of excellence.
Some students do not want to leave after they finish the program (aka: 5th year students, they apply into the Master’s program after finishing up their BA)
What are the expectations of scholarship?

2 tier systems: Graduate Faculty vs. Tenure Faculty
Who gets to teach which course?

Inviting faculty to teach – but whom to invite to teach graduate programs, or undergraduate programs
We do not want to shortchange undergraduate students.

Graduate Committee = assessment, proper advisement, monitor quality
We have a cohort of 10 student reps
“closing the loop” model with GE
We should adopt this model, they’re doing it, its been productive for GE
Need curriculum meetings, faculty meetings

Culminating Experience:

Grad Advisors take care of everything, from handling admissions to informing students of their progress
Its an honor to be selected to be a G.A.

In the end, they take up a lot of faculty time when they do their research/project

3 tracks: thesis, project, or coursework
Most students do projects

Most of our students do projects as well; we do encourage projects

Can students change from thesis to project, vice versa?

Once they declare candidacy, they’ll need to change their program of study.

Table 5

Quality of Graduate Programs

Entrance Requirements
Degree of selectivity may vary from year to year; may depend on number of applications to program. May be some flexibility on GPA requirements; other factors taken into consideration such as number of applicants, test scores, letters of recommendation, etc. Entrance requirements vary for different programs and may include one or more of the following:
- Minimum GPA
- Minimum GMAT score
- Minimum GRE score
- Minimum TOEFL score
- Letters of recommendation
- Statements of purpose
- Experience
- Essays

Course Requirements
- The number of core courses varies among the different programs.
- Students may be admitted on a conditional basis which could require completion of certain prerequisites or core courses.
- Undergraduate coursework is taken into consideration.
- Course selections and electives may be based on the concentration of a particular major or on whether a student is completing a thesis or project.

Culminating Experience
The culminating experience varies among the different programs and may include:
- Written exams
- Oral exams or presentations
- Individual and/or Team projects
- Theses

Fewer students choose completing a thesis over a project for various reasons.
Some concerns and challenges expressed about completing a thesis include the timeliness
of human review subject approval if necessary, faculty having to oversee thesis work, and
Graduate Admissions office deadlines and approval process.

Some projects may include subjects or topics related to an existing job or profession.
Departments are concerned with professionalism and good quality work on completed projects.

Exit Requirements
- Advisor/departmental approval of reports, theses, projects.
- Completion of internships.
- National certification for some programs.

Assessment
For some programs, there is no formal assessment or assessment may be minimal
compared to some undergraduate programs. Departments form committees and regularly hold review cycles to discuss more/better ways to assess programs. Some programs hold national accreditations, which also include external reviews. Faculty, volunteer faculty, and students, especially since they are working professionals, may be involved in the review process. Involves learning objectives, administering student and employer surveys, reviewing pass rates on national exams.

Information may be disseminated and reviewed by department only; National information may be posted for faculty and student review.

Changes to Existing Programs
- Ongoing reviews are conducted.
- Cohort programs have been implemented to change and improve existing programs.
- Review committees formed to make decisions on faculty and discuss program changes.
- Industry constantly evolving, may dictate what type of course changes need to be made;
development based on need.
- Input received from faculty who are current employers on implementing program changes.
- Reviewing and/or changing lecturer’s course content.
- Suggesting completion of student internships without enrollment.
- Evening courses additionally offered.
- On-line courses additionally offered.
- Effective ways of revamping masters programs may include:
- Changing non-teaching masters into teaching masters
- Changing existing bachelor programs to master programs
- Changing to include credentials programs.
- Developing doctoral programs.

Enrollment Management Considerations

Departments review and express concerns on ways to manage number of enrollees per class and number of classes offered. Challenges include determining part time verses full time faculty and meeting the needs of students to faculty ratio for the number of classes offered.

Economy plays a role in the decrease or increase in number of applicants. Employers may not be willing to pay for education when economy is down. Undergraduate and graduate enrollments may tend to increase or decrease for certain programs based on the type of degree, the economy and job market demands. Working professionals may need to obtain higher education to change or further their careers.

Departments expressed concerns on ways to meet the challenge of looking at graduate programs differently from undergraduate programs.

Table 6

Quality of Graduate Programs

How do you currently access the quality of the graduate programs?

• Faculty quality – Standard assessments
  • Peer evaluation of faculty
    Student review of faculty
• Course evaluation
  • Content
    Process
    Structure
• Course evaluation
  • Feed back from students
    Relevant from student
    Relevant to industry needs
• Employees evaluation
  • Preparedness of student
• Community evaluation
• Graduation requirement
• Comprehensive exam
  Oral exam by 3 faculty members
  Comprehensive before thesis
  Thesis and oral defense
  Ability to develop program presentation
  • Oral and written
• Student quality
  • Admission Requirement
    o 2.5/ 2.7 GPA or higher
    o 550 TOEFL
    o GRE
    o Satisfying competency writing requirement
• Student papers for publication
• No formal evaluation

How/where is this assessment information disseminated for programmatic review or use?

• Graduate Coordinator
• Graduate Studies Committee
• Faculty
• Graduate Advisor
• Department Committee
• Accreditation body
• Graduate News Letter
• Website
• Community Advising Group
• Graduate Bulletin
• Professional Advisor (Faculty Member)
• Exit Interview
• Email checklist to students
  • Checklist has everything they need to do from admission to graduation

In what ways are the assessment data used to change an existing program? In other words, how do you “close the loop” for continuous graduate program improvement?

• Change things according to need
  • Faculty suggestion
    Student suggestion
    Community suggestion
• Changes are made by
  • Graduate Committee
    Curriculum coordination committee
    In Faculty meeting
    In Department meeting
• Faculty retreats – formal means of feed back
• Training of part-time faculty
• Part-time faculty book on administration

What Changes are you considering, If any?

• Need Quality Control – changes to add quality control
  • Oral Comprehensive
  • Moving to written comprehensive instead of oral comprehensive
  • Faculty responsible for quality control
• Adding new courses to reflect demands of the community
• Allowing students to take courses from other departments to get away from the overlapping
• Need more work on the quality control of the educational effectiveness of the program.
• Working on formalizing the process of assessment and feed back of assessment of data
• Improving the quality of communication written and verbal
  

Enrollment Management Considerations

• Faculty demands are high
• Student demands are high
• Changes according to industry need

Table 7

Quality of Graduate Programs

Recurring themes
· Difficult to track who in the program and to track alumni
· Would like a mechanism to share ideas about graduate program assessment and ways to ensure program quality
· Wide variety of program from small (admit about 12 students/year) to large (admit 100 students/year). Different types of program have very different needs.
· Need mechanism to move underperforming students from graduate programs
· Communication skills are a problem at the graduate level too
· The mechanism for managing enrollment is not effective (neither for numbers nor for quality)

Quality of the graduate programs
· Entrance requirements for graduate students need review. Two perspectives:
o The 2.5 entrance requirement is too low.
o Nice to have the flexibility in entrance requirements. For example accept a student who had a lower GPA as an undergrad, but who has a great deal of practical experience.
o Several departments indicated that they use a GPS of 3.0 as a minimum.
· Need clearer instructions to students and graduate coordinators about who is accepting students. Some confusion about whether the university or the program is accepting the student
· GRE may not be a good predictor of success in graduate program. May be a useful measure to make decisions when there is a question about whether or not to accept a student.
· Requiring the GRE/GMAT for admissions sends a signal to prospective students that they are applying to a quality program.
· Business uses GMAT to eliminate students from consideration.
o Since communication sills are so important, a 50th percentile on verbal portion of test is required.
· Business has a culminating project in which students must earn B or better. Only two chances to earn a B. After that the student is disqualified.
· Foreign Language conditionally admits students until pass proficiency test (written and verbal). Three chances and then student is disqualified. Give proficiency exam at beginning and a final exam at the end. If they fail a portion of the test students must take additional courses.
· Psychology puts heavy emphasis on communications skills and uses the letter of intent to evaluate student writing. The three letters of recommendations must discuss the student’s communication skills.
· Psychology has found that identification of an advisor early correlates with finishing the program quickly.
· Culminating project for business is a project in a class (usually a business plan). Exit questions “What thought going to get out of the program?” and “What did they think they got from the program?” used for assessment. Would like to survey employers about student performance. Lack of information about who is in the program. Need help from Business alumni association. Goals of COB and Business alumni association not aligned.
· Education students must pass thesis or project. Trying to track alumni in the future.
· Students do not know what a thesis is. They write about a subject but there is no thesis. To address this Justice Studies requires a thesis proposal at the end of the first semester (including a literature review and explanation of the research method). If the student does not make progress, the thesis is converted to an independent study. Two courses students take are used to identify a thesis topic and to learn how to do a thesis proposal. May not decide on a thesis topic until the two course are completed.

Dissemination of assessment information
· Justice Studies uses scoring rubrics for three written exams that are part of a class designated as the culminating experience. The five-year review is used for assessing and analyzing the results of the exams.
· Currently Psychology only use whether passed oral exam and student grades. Working on proposed assessment plan that includes three components
o Academic (meet with each student to assess academic progress)
o Research and scholarship (#conference presentations, assessment of quality of work on thesis)
o Career
Also preparing alumni web site to better track alumni

Enrollment Management Considerations

· Spanish - Many graduate students must take UG classes, so the grad program benefits the UG program.
· Psychology has identified 20 as absolute maximum that faculty can handle. !5 is a more realistic number (3 student per faculty member)
· Justice Studies indicates enrollment management mechanism is not working so every year there is a crisis over enrollments.
· Business – See downward trend in off campus enrollments and upward trend in on-campus enrollments. This has impact on available funding.

Table 8

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

Entrance Requirements (GRE,TOEFL, GPA), Course Requirements (prerequisites, core courses, electives), Culminating Experience (written/oral exam, thesis, project), Exit Requirements:

· In some programs the GRE is required by not used
· Health Science program doesn’t use the GRE as a strict tool for admission
· Proficient experience is more important than a high GPA
· The program does a survey on graduate students
· Have a 400-hour internship for culminating experience requirement and the program is phasing
out the comprehensive exam
· The program is a 2 to 7-year program on the average
· NuFS program also doesn’t use the GRE as a tool for admission. Instead they use an entrance exam
· The department looks at strong experience instead of GPA
· Certain courses have to be taken to fulfill the course requirement
· Department finds that most students come into their program to get a Master’s and then want to
become Dieticians
· Students do 298, Plan B project and take six units or they do a 299, Plan A thesis, six units
· It’s a 30-unit program
· Students do an oral defense of their project or thesis
· Students have a poster session with a poster display to fulfill their Exit Requirement
· In the Psychology program there are three graduate degrees, MA-Psych, MS-Psych (Clinical), MS-Psych (Ind/Org)
· MA-Psych has a 30-unit program with a 3.0 GPA entrance requirement
· Each MS and the MA must have a set of core requirements with some electives. The Psych program is controlled by the Psych Board who determines if the students get their license
· In the MA program and in the MS (Ind/Org) program a thesis is used; in thre MS (Clinical)
Program an oral and written exam is used for their culminating experience
· All three Psych programs use alumni surveys
· In the Kinesiology program they do not require the GRE but the GPA must be 3.0. They will
conditionally admit students with a 2.5 GPA and they will need to take two courses
· For their course requirement they do not use the GRE scores
· Under Human Factors/Ergonomics, they screen students to see if they fit with the faculty member
· Students need statistical background and economics background in Human Factors/Erg to get in the graduate program
· In the Kinesiology program students need a BA or BS in Kinesiology or take 12 units of undergraduate coursework. Then they can enter the grad program
· Students do a project in Human Factors. If they do a thesis it can be qualitative or quantitative
· In Human Performance they have an accredited Athletics Training association for the students to satisfy the learning objective for the degree program
· In the Chemistry program it is a 30-unit program
· High School students apply to the program to continue in chemistry and those who apply from outside industries come to the program to extend their knowledge or education
· The department doesn’t want to admit students who they feel are anticipating pursuing chemistry to get into industry
· The program uses a thesis (Plan A) for their culminating experience
· Majority of students do research after they are three years into the program

Quality of Graduate Programs

How to assess the quality of the graduate programs? How and where is this assessment information disseminated for review or use? In what ways are the assessment data used to change an existing program? How do you “close the loop” for continuous graduate program improvement? What changes are you considering, if any?

· In the Health Science program students have to meet a high criteria
· There must be core values, principles
· Core objectives and student learning objectives must have an assessment, either by an exam or a
paper. This has only been in effect within the last three or four years.
· Their activities are structured and they use a database on their assessments and key in any changes
· Chemistry feels they should have a foundation course – an entry course taken for the first year
· Upper division and lower division classes taken to make it easier for the first year and then move toward critical analysis
· Psych students want to take courses where they can apply what they’ve learned later

Role of graduate education: Where does it play and where does it fit?

· Graduate programs are valuable to new faculty, and it provides a wide variety to the established
faculty and the students
· To make it fit, papers could be written by faculty as authors and then published. This would be valuable to the faculty
· More papers could be written by students as single authors
· In the Clinical Psych program the licensing exam is 40%
· In some Psych grad programs you don’t know how high the quality is – hard to assess
· In the HuP department they take any student
· They have two core courses that graduate students can get into – makes it easy

Enrollment Management Considerations

Did not cover this topic. Ran out of time.

Table 9

Quality of Graduate Programs

Pleased with quality of program; over time has continually gotten better graduate students, with better gpa’s. Good relationship between faculty and graduate students. Outside certification of one program; outside assessment of internships (i.e. how successfully students apply their knowledge). Thesis and projects are a form of assessment.

Another program—students need to make up deficiencies in math and others. Majority of students are from overseas—Overseas students are better prepared than native-born U.S. students. Most students continue in the Ph.D. program.

Another program, have drastically increased number of students; must reassess number of students being admitted. Thinking about requiring GRE in addition to grades. Are thinking about only the third part of the GRE—writing part. Culminating experience; written exams, if they fail 3 times they are out.

“B” in 100w may not be enough to do graduate work in a program requiring a lot of writing.

Another program strongly recommends auditing the 100w when writing skills need improvement.

Another program requires a standardized exam for admittance. On rare occasions have sent them to the Writing Center. Students found that this wasn’t that helpful. A professor will be doing a writer’s workshop for students. Student with a systematic writing problem will be referred to the Writer’s Workshop. Writing Center assistance wasn’t focused, was far away and tutors with the tutoring skills were not available. Writing Center was more focused on editing and grammar, not on HOW to write.

250W—Graduate course requirement was a pre-requisite for entering into the program and did not have the resources—did not have enough instructors over 120 students in this Masters. This class has become a writing and research skills class. But not a pre-requisite any more. Required for some masters but not others.

Quality is impacted by funding level/student faculty relationships—there is a morale problem as classes grow larger.

Enrollment Management Considerations

Sociology—very small faculty—heavy student demand.
450 undergraduates
65 graduate students
Cannot offer more than 4 graduate courses—demand for theses

Education—Demand grew by leaps and bounds—funded as if program is undergraduate.
MA class of 40 students

CSU’s all have a limited number but SJSU is determined not to limit. Impact is severe on faculty in terms of workload. A difficulty--education grants only allow 8 percent overhead and are less attractive than others.

CSU should fund graduate programs at a more appropriate level. If we are going to do graduate programs and graduate work, we need to have a funding level commensurate with a graduate level program.

Some programs have problems finding students while others are coping with too much demand.

Some graduate classes in one program go to 100 students and then faculty get 6 WTUS for one class. Demand of student enrollment—market based—and no enrollment management whatsoever. Concern about importing students overseas is so inadequate for on campus programs.

SJSU has always been driven by FTES—that is where we get our resources. If departments cut back, they lose resources and so there is no incentive to manage enrollment in terms of limiting number of students. Trend is to continue to seek more students.

One program has gone from 15 students per graduate course to an average of 40 students per class.

University needs to look at summer graduate courses and the impact of summer as part of the year round enrollment. As long as University is funded on FTES, then teaching graduate programs in the summer is not attractive because of inadequate funding and loss of FTES during Spring and Fall.

Others like self-support for summers because there is more money.