Assessment Details
Academic Year: 2020-2021 Level: Graduate
Campus Department: Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences [UG and Grad]
Program Type: Major [UG] / Program [Grad]
Program Name: Physics PhD (Link)
Description of Data Collection:
• Meetings with assigned academic advisor during semesters
• Passing of the Comprehensive Examination
• Passing of the Research Proposal Examination
• Thesis advising
• Thesis committee input and successful thesis defense
• Placement upon graduation
• Graduate Affairs Committee interviews with students as necessary.
Review Process:
Faculty academic advisors meet with advisees periodically to discuss their academic standing, course selection, progress through the program, learning outcomes, etc. The Comprehensive Examination is administered by a faculty committee after one year in the program to test students’ broad understanding of physics. The results are discussed and voted on at a faculty meeting. Subsequently each student takes a public oral Research Proposal Examination to evaluate their ability to undertake PhD-level research and communicate the relevant scientific principles and results appropriately. The Research Proposal exam is administered and evaluated (pass/fail) by a faculty committee headed by the thesis advisor. At completion of their PhD thesis research, a student’s Doctoral Thesis Committee evaluates both the content of the written thesis and quality of the defense to confirm that the student’s work was at the PhD-level and the results were communicated appropriately. The graduate students also have input into the process with representatives on the Graduate Affairs Committee (when discussing curricular issues) and on our Teaching Committee.
The overall responsibility for evaluating a student’s achieving the desired outcomes rests with the Graduate Affairs Committee, in consultation with the department Chairperson and the entire faculty, as necessary (e.g., Comprehensive Exam, recommendations from Graduate Affairs Committee on changes in the curriculum).
Resulting Program Changes:
The Graduate Affairs Committee conducted a comprehensive departmental review of the graduate program and its management over the three-year period, 2015 to 2018, to better align the program and outcomes with the learning goals stated in 1. Suggested changes were discussed and approved by vote of the entire faculty.
As part of the assessment of learning outcomes, extensive discussions have taken place over the past few years about whether to change the format of our Comprehensive Examination(CE). Currently, our CE has four parts covering the four fundamental areas of physics (classical mechanics, electrodynamics, quantum physics and statistical physics). A student must receive an overall passing grade on the CE. The format of some CEs offered by other physics graduate programs instead required students to pass each of the four parts. Students failing one or more part would have to retake and pass those parts of the CE. Still other physics graduate programs no longer required a CE. Our faculty agreed that a CE should still be required, but discussions are continuing about possible changes to its format while we review the CE results from past years. To date, no changes have been made.
Date of Most Recent Program Review:
The Graduate Affairs Committee conducted a comprehensive departmental review of the graduate program and its management over the three-year period, 2015 to 2018, to better align the program and outcomes with the learning goals stated in 1. Suggested changes were discussed and approved by vote of the entire faculty.
As part of the assessment of learning outcomes, extensive discussions have taken place over the past few years about whether to change the format of our Comprehensive Examination(CE). Currently, our CE has four parts covering the four fundamental areas of physics (classical mechanics, electrodynamics, quantum physics and statistical physics). A student must receive an overall passing grade on the CE. The format of some CEs offered by other physics graduate programs instead required students to pass each of the four parts. Students failing one or more part would have to retake and pass those parts of the CE. Still other physics graduate programs no longer required a CE. Our faculty agreed that a CE should still be required, but discussions are continuing about possible changes to its format while we review the CE results from past years. To date, no changes have been made.
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