Assessment Details
Academic Year: 2021-2022 Level: Graduate
Campus Department: Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences [UG and Grad]
Program Type: Major [UG] / Program [Grad]
Program Name: Theology PhD (Link)
Description of Data Collection:
a. Students must pass comprehensive examinations—both written and oral—conducted over the course of their third year in the program, demonstrating both a general mastery of theology and superior skill and knowledge in their chosen area(s) of theology.
b. Students must pass a minimum of two foreign language examinations or demonstrate by other means their competency in such research languages.
c. At the end of each academic year, faculty in each area convene to evaluate the academic progress of graduate students in their area with regard to: 1) the development of research tools and techniques in their particular field; 2) ability to organize and integrate knowledge in such a way as to make an original contribution to the academic study of theology; and 3) engagement in ecumenical, inter-religious, cross-cultural, and interdisciplinary academic conversations as appropriate to their discipline. At the end of each of their first three years in the program (and mid-year in years one and two), students meet with advisors to provide self-assessments and to review (area) faculty evaluations of their academic performance. During the 2019-20 academic year the program designed new advising resources (including year-by-year checklists) to further facilitate these meetings.
d. The advisor oversees the student’s participation in academic conferences and efforts at publication to ensure that the student has skills necessary to succeed in these professional contexts.
e. A dissertation is the principal manifestation of the student’s scholarly competency. The departmental Dissertation Proposal Review Committee reviews and approves the student’s dissertation proposal during the first semester of their fourth year in the program. Students must publicly defend their dissertation before a dissertation board as a demonstration of their ability to contribute original scholarship within their field.
f. Faculty members evaluate the teaching skills of students assigned to them as Teaching Assistants during their second and third years in their program. Faculty mentors assess students’ teaching in the fifth year when students serve as Teaching Fellows. The CTE certificate program (required of all students) provides further monitoring of progress in pedagogy.
Review Process:
a. The Director of Graduate Studies, in concert with the department chair, conveners, and the Dissertation Proposal Review Committee (formerly Educational Policy Committee), regularly review data obtained through the above detailed assessment instruments to gauge department success in achieving learning outcomes.
b. The department’s Curriculum Committee evaluates new course proposals. There was conversation in the department’s Executive Committee in January and February 2021 about shifting the graduate course approval process from the Curriculum Committee to Area Conveners, but the Acting Chair decided to wait to bring this to the larger department until Fall 2021.
Resulting Program Changes:
During the summer of 2021, the graduate director conducted an extensive program evaluation, drawing upon internal (job placement, progression through the program) and external data (hiring plans survey, job listings by area). In light of the findings, the doctoral cohort size will remain at ten incoming students per year, which the department recruited and enrolled for 2022-23. In 2021-22 two students began the new health care track in doctoral program, with regular evaluative meetings with the point of contact in the department (A. Vicini). Two more students are scheduled to undertake the track over the next two academic years. One incoming ethics doctoral student has begun the process for the newly approved joint PhD-STL in conjunction with the School of Theology and Ministry (S. Moloney). We continue to have a student involved in the Digital Humanities program and several more considering its pursuit. Each of these new opportunities will help expand students job prospects upon degree completion. In the fall, a new departmental Conversations Series responded to findings from a spring 2021 ad hoc committee departmental survey and from graduate student exit interviews. The department convened faculty and graduate students together monthly for a brief presentation and then mixed small group conversations on each topic: Gender/Sexism/Heteronormativity, Race/Racism, Ideological Polarization. Three faculty designed the process (Cahill/Cornille/Heyer), and they recruited five additional colleagues to lead the small group discussions and debrief monthly. A December Faculty-Student retreat was designed in response to the issues that arose in the monthly conversations, as well. In spring 2022 the DGS met with representatives from the theology and philosophy departments and the Center for Student Formation to design a graduate student retreat for September 2022. The department continues to place a high value on advising, furnishing students and faculty with worksheets and resources twice per year. In the spring of 2022 the DGS designed new Dissertation Committee Guidelines to respond to concerns from students about timely return of chapters and from faculty about various expectations. They were implemented immediately. The program also designed an IRB resource document particular to doctoral students in theology in light of students’ experiences with ethnographic research in recent years.
Date of Most Recent Program Review:
During the summer of 2021, the graduate director conducted an extensive program evaluation, drawing upon internal (job placement, progression through the program) and external data (hiring plans survey, job listings by area). In light of the findings, the doctoral cohort size will remain at ten incoming students per year, which the department recruited and enrolled for 2022-23. In 2021-22 two students began the new health care track in doctoral program, with regular evaluative meetings with the point of contact in the department (A. Vicini). Two more students are scheduled to undertake the track over the next two academic years. One incoming ethics doctoral student has begun the process for the newly approved joint PhD-STL in conjunction with the School of Theology and Ministry (S. Moloney). We continue to have a student involved in the Digital Humanities program and several more considering its pursuit. Each of these new opportunities will help expand students job prospects upon degree completion. In the fall, a new departmental Conversations Series responded to findings from a spring 2021 ad hoc committee departmental survey and from graduate student exit interviews. The department convened faculty and graduate students together monthly for a brief presentation and then mixed small group conversations on each topic: Gender/Sexism/Heteronormativity, Race/Racism, Ideological Polarization. Three faculty designed the process (Cahill/Cornille/Heyer), and they recruited five additional colleagues to lead the small group discussions and debrief monthly. A December Faculty-Student retreat was designed in response to the issues that arose in the monthly conversations, as well. In spring 2022 the DGS met with representatives from the theology and philosophy departments and the Center for Student Formation to design a graduate student retreat for September 2022. The department continues to place a high value on advising, furnishing students and faculty with worksheets and resources twice per year. In the spring of 2022 the DGS designed new Dissertation Committee Guidelines to respond to concerns from students about timely return of chapters and from faculty about various expectations. They were implemented immediately. The program also designed an IRB resource document particular to doctoral students in theology in light of students’ experiences with ethnographic research in recent years.
Attachments (if available)