The Self Study

According to the Assessment and Review of Graduate Programs- A Policy Statement, written by the Council of Graduate Schools the first step in a program review is the self-study. The self-study should be prepared by the faculty of the department and it should be descriptive, evaluative, and aspirational. It is meant to provide basic information on the program, give faculty assessments of the program’s strengths and weaknesses, and present the faculty’s vision for the program’s future. A departmental self-study is the department’s opportunity to scrutinize itself, to publicize its accomplishments, examine its flaws, and focus on future directions. A self-study also gives the department a chance (sometimes the only chance) to explain itself and how it is viewed by its peers. A self study should answer the following basic questions.

• What do you do?
• Why do you do it?
• How well do you do it, and who thinks so?
• How well does what you do relate to why you say you do it?
• What do you plan to do differently in the future?

The self-study process should take approximately one year to complete (12-18 months). The department will be involved in a significant amount of time planning, meeting, data collecting, surveying, discussing, writing and reviewing/editing. The Graduate School suggests that a clear schedule for various components of the review be developed within the department early in the process. This will help facilitate accountability, encourage accuracy and prevent placing an unreasonable amount of work for the self-study on one person or administrative office.

• Self Study Outline (MS Word)
• Sample Self Study (PDF)

Data Collection- In order to complete a successful review, departments depend on accurate institutional data. The Graduate School will request this data for the program from the Office of Institutional Research.