Assessment Details
Academic Year: 2020-2021 Level: Graduate
Campus Department: Carroll School of Management [UG and Grad]
Program Type: Major [UG] / Program [Grad]
Program Name: Management and Organization PhD (Link)
Description of Data Collection:
1. Students complete annual reports that document their accomplishments in the areas of research and teaching.
2. Students’ completion of relevant course work is recorded and evaluated.
3. Students’ course evaluations for those who teach MB021 are reviewed.
4. Students’ performance on comprehensive examinations is assessed.
Review Process:
Each student’s advisor reviews data related to that individual student. The Ph.D. Program Director reviews data related to all doctoral students. The Department Chairperson reviews all course evaluations. All faculty who work with doctoral students review the status of each Ph.D. student yearly in June to assess the degree of accomplishment of these objectives. Each student receives a letter describing his or her status in the program and hence their accomplishment of these objectives.
Resulting Program Changes:
Recent shifts in funding have made it clear that our students need to finish their degree within 5 years. Thus, the following three changes were made to help ensure that this will happen.
1. We have made changes to the comprehensive exam structure at the end of the second year. In 2019, we incorporated a question based on the student’s dissertation topic. We did so in order to facilitate the transition from coursework to dissertation writing. With two years of data, we found that there was not adequate space or time for the response to these tailored questions, so this year we are allowing more time and space for answering the dissertation-related question, and moving other, more general topics to the first day (of three days) of the exam.
2. We have moved all required coursework to the first two years of the doctoral program. Once again, this was done to be in line with other doctoral programs on campus, and to help ensure students complete the program within 5 years.
3. We have changed the number of required courses so that they will be able to be completed within two years. This change was facilitated by a review of peer doctoral programs (see answer to question #7).
We continue to fine-tune how we advise our doctoral students. For example, we now place first year students with two faculty (one non-tenured, one tenured) in order for them to be exposed to a greater number of learning styles early in their program, and to balance learning from those who were recently doctoral students themselves, as well as those who have “made it” in the field by achieving tenure.
1. Since the changes above, the number of students accomplishing each of the four objectives in a timely fashion is now 100% for each cohort. It is too soon to assess whether the first three changes will result in more students completing their degree within a 5-year time period, however.
2. Recent graduates have received excellent job placements, including Cornell (and now Wharton), Harvard, and New York University. In addition, we were able to place our students into jobs during 2020 when the job market was very restricted due to the pandemic.
3. Regarding teaching outcomes, each year one or two students receive the Donald J. White Teaching Award, given to graduate students at Boston College to recognize outstanding teaching.
4. Regarding research outcomes, our students are publishing in our best journals. To illustrate, in this year alone, one of our current doctoral students got a paper accepted into the Academy of Management Journal, and another former student (now at New York University) published a paper in the Administrative Science Quarterly off of her dissertation. These are the top two empirical outlets in our field. Moreover, a former student’s paper in the Academy of Management Journal, which was based on her third-year (master’s) paper, was a runner up for the best paper of the year in 2019. These papers were either written by, or supervised, one of the students’ faculty mentors.
Date of Most Recent Program Review:
Recent shifts in funding have made it clear that our students need to finish their degree within 5 years. Thus, the following three changes were made to help ensure that this will happen.
1. We have made changes to the comprehensive exam structure at the end of the second year. In 2019, we incorporated a question based on the student’s dissertation topic. We did so in order to facilitate the transition from coursework to dissertation writing. With two years of data, we found that there was not adequate space or time for the response to these tailored questions, so this year we are allowing more time and space for answering the dissertation-related question, and moving other, more general topics to the first day (of three days) of the exam.
2. We have moved all required coursework to the first two years of the doctoral program. Once again, this was done to be in line with other doctoral programs on campus, and to help ensure students complete the program within 5 years.
3. We have changed the number of required courses so that they will be able to be completed within two years. This change was facilitated by a review of peer doctoral programs (see answer to question #7).
We continue to fine-tune how we advise our doctoral students. For example, we now place first year students with two faculty (one non-tenured, one tenured) in order for them to be exposed to a greater number of learning styles early in their program, and to balance learning from those who were recently doctoral students themselves, as well as those who have “made it” in the field by achieving tenure.
1. Since the changes above, the number of students accomplishing each of the four objectives in a timely fashion is now 100% for each cohort. It is too soon to assess whether the first three changes will result in more students completing their degree within a 5-year time period, however.
2. Recent graduates have received excellent job placements, including Cornell (and now Wharton), Harvard, and New York University. In addition, we were able to place our students into jobs during 2020 when the job market was very restricted due to the pandemic.
3. Regarding teaching outcomes, each year one or two students receive the Donald J. White Teaching Award, given to graduate students at Boston College to recognize outstanding teaching.
4. Regarding research outcomes, our students are publishing in our best journals. To illustrate, in this year alone, one of our current doctoral students got a paper accepted into the Academy of Management Journal, and another former student (now at New York University) published a paper in the Administrative Science Quarterly off of her dissertation. These are the top two empirical outlets in our field. Moreover, a former student’s paper in the Academy of Management Journal, which was based on her third-year (master’s) paper, was a runner up for the best paper of the year in 2019. These papers were either written by, or supervised, one of the students’ faculty mentors.
Attachments (if available)