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: Theology PhD (Link)
Description of Data Collection:
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.
a) Students must pass a minimum of two foreign language examinations or demonstrate by other means their competency in such research languages.
b) 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.
c) 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.
d) 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.
e) 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:
This academic year the Chair and Director of Graduate Studies proposed a cohort reduction to the college and departmental colleagues, engaging in conversations about its relative merits, risks and implications. We designed a program evaluation at the Dean’s request to better assess the appropriate doctoral cohort size going forward (attached) and began gathering internal and external data, including a survey now underway of AJCU and other Catholic universities’ anticipated hiring needs. The Director of Graduate Studies continued conducting program evaluations via email and phone, which offered helpful information for graduate programming. The DGS updated departmental TA guidelines in spring 2021 to meet new needs and further specify parameters. In Fall 2020 the DGS also undertook an extensive survey of alums, students and faculty to evaluate the service structure for the doctoral program; as a result the department voted to move to a more flexible model going forward.
Date of Most Recent Program Review:
This academic year the Chair and Director of Graduate Studies proposed a cohort reduction to the college and departmental colleagues, engaging in conversations about its relative merits, risks and implications. We designed a program evaluation at the Dean’s request to better assess the appropriate doctoral cohort size going forward (attached) and began gathering internal and external data, including a survey now underway of AJCU and other Catholic universities’ anticipated hiring needs. The Director of Graduate Studies continued conducting program evaluations via email and phone, which offered helpful information for graduate programming. The DGS updated departmental TA guidelines in spring 2021 to meet new needs and further specify parameters. In Fall 2020 the DGS also undertook an extensive survey of alums, students and faculty to evaluate the service structure for the doctoral program; as a result the department voted to move to a more flexible model going forward.
Attachments (if available)