Overview for External Reviewers

All academic programs at Chapman University conduct program review on a five-year cycle.  Program review enables academic units to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of their programs. The goals of program review are to:

1. Assess a program’s goals.
2. Evaluate the quality of the program.
3. Enable units to address issues that may come to light during the program review process.
4. Provide feedback from outside reviewers, enabling comparison with similar programs at other institutions, giving faculty and administrators a wider perspective, and ensuring that the program is not isolated from the larger academic community.
5. Facilitate improved teaching and learning.
6. Facilitate an institutional and program response to the program review. 

The program review process allows faculty members of the unit, the Dean, the Academic Council, Assessment Committee, and the Office of the Chancellor to assess the educational quality of the program and to address basic questions regarding educational goals, the effectiveness of the program’s strategies to achieve those goals, the allocation of resources, and changes that should be made in relation to program review findings.

The role of the external reviewers is important in the program review process.  Each program review includes a visit by two external reviewers, one chosen from a national pool and one from a local pool.  The external reviewers promote comparison with similar programs at other institutions, provide faculty and administrators a wider perspective, and ensure that the academic program being reviewed is not isolated from the larger academic community.  The external reviewers prompt academic units and the university to address issues that may come to light during the program review process, and facilitate an institutional and program response to the program review. 

For the program review, the academic unit writes a Program Review Self-Study Report of 10-15 pages, focusing on significant issues, questions, program changes, challenges, and future goals.  The unit provides its Program Review Self-Study Report and Appendix and other materials to the external reviewers via the Office of the Chancellor at least four weeks in advance of the two-day program review site visit.

The unit prepares a schedule for the external reviewers’ two-day site visit in consultation with the Office of the Chancellor.  During the site visit, the external reviewers meet with program faculty, students, and administrators.  Before meeting with the unit, the external reviewers will meet with  the Vice Chancellor for Institutional Planning and Assessment and the college/school dean. The external reviewers review program materials and exhibits of student work, attend class meetings, and tour special facilities and library holdings relevant to the academic unit.  At the conclusion of the site visit, the external reviewers prepare a rough draft of their report and summarize their program evaluations and recommendations in an exit briefing with the Chancellor, the Vice Chancellor for Institutional Planning and Assessment, the college/school dean, and (if applicable) the department chair.  See Guidelines for Program Review Site Visit and Sample Program Review Site Visit Schedule.

The schedule for the site visit will include time for reviewing the unit’s program review documents and materials. During the external reviewers’ visit, the unit shall be responsible for making the following materials available: course syllabi/outlines, advising materials, samples of student work, and student theses, projects and/or comprehensive exams, and other materials as needed. 

The external reviewers will submit a report of approximately 10 pages, evaluating the unit’s strengths and areas of needed improvement, within four weeks of the external reviewers’ campus visit. The final report of the external reviewers should be addressed to the Vice Chancellor for Institutional Planning and Assessment, who will send copies of the report to the college/school dean and (if applicable) the department chair.  The Office of the Chancellor provides honoraria for the external reviewers.

External Reviewer Responsibilities:

1. External reviewers, as recognized experts in the disciplinary/professional field of the unit undertaking program review, provide critical judgment, ensure the objectivity of the program review process, and determine how the program compares to other programs in the region and nation.
   
2. Reviewers should bring an informed and unbiased view to the assessment of the program. External reviewers should judge whether the plans of the department are appropriate, considering such factors as the current condition of the program, trends in the discipline, the nature of the faculty, and the characteristics of the students and the community the program serves. Reviewers may be provided with a list of questions to be specifically addressed in their report, but they are not to be constrained from covering other issues that might arise during the course of their review.
   
3. The External Reviewers’ Report shall not require a specific format. However, it is expected that the report will address each of the sections in the unit’s Program Review Self-Study Report.  The report should address the proposed goals and actions in Section V, Future Goals and Actions, of the Program Review Self-Study Report, indicating agreement or disagreement, and proposing additional or alternative goals and actions as appropriate. A single report from both external reviewers should be submitted within four weeks after the program review site visit. Dissenting opinions should be included if consensus is not reached by the two external reviewers.  See Format and Guidelines for External Reviewers’ Report.