Association for Institutional Research
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#34Title: National Research Council - Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs Prepared: May 4, 2006 Type: Informational/Comments Requested Summary The National Research Council (NRC) recently contacted universities about participating in its next assessment of U.S. research doctorate programs. This study will emphasize comparable data about doctoral programs and data that are useful to doctoral students. Data collection will take place from May - December 2006 and results will be available around December 2007. The NRC is requesting that comments on the four new questionnaires be sent to ResDocQues@nas.edu as soon as possible. Current Status The current NRC study, like previous studies in 1983 and 1995, will assess the quality and characteristics of research-doctorate programs at institutions in the United States. It is designed to help universities improve the quality of these programs through benchmarking; provide potential students and the public with accessible, readily available information on doctoral programs nationwide; and enhance the nation's overall research capacity. The study will consist of the following:
The methodology for the study will be a refinement of that described by the Committee to Examine the Methodology for the Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs in the report Assessing Research-Doctorate Programs: A Methodology Study. Information about the study, the study taxonomy, and questionnaires can be found on the Web at http://www7.nationalacademies.org/resdoc/index.html. Implications for Institutions Presidents of institutions will be asked to identify an institutional coordinator (IC) who will be responsible for distributing the institutional and program questionnaires to the appropriate offices, and, when they are completed, transmitting them to the NRC. It is recommended that the Graduate Deans work closely with the institutional research offices to provide the requested data. Research-doctorate programs must be cross-walked to the fields in the NRC taxonomy. The IC will also be asked to raise awareness among faculty and students of the impending data collection. Certain data are expected to be generated from the institution's central data system, including lists of faculty and students, summary faculty and student demographics, and completions by program. The completions data will be requested for entering cohorts of doctoral students going back to 1995, and will include numbers of students entering, leaving, earning a master's degree and then leaving, attaining candidacy, and earning Ph.D.s. Institutions should send comments on the four questionnaires to ResDocQues@nas.edu as soon as possible. Timeline April/May, 2006 - Letters sent to Presidents and Chancellors (copy to Graduate Deans) to convey timeline and ask for the name of an institutional coordinator (IC) May, 2006 - Institutional Coordinators asked for a list of programs to include in this study May, 2006 - Institutional questionnaire distributed to ICs June 30, 2006 - List of participating programs due to the NRC July 21, 2006 - Parts A-D of Institutional Questionnaire due to the NRC August, 2006 - Program questionnaires distributed to ICs (Note: This questionnaire can be pre-populated by the IR office and passed on to the program) September, 2006 - Faculty lists for each program due to the NRC September-October, 2006 - Questionnaires sent to faculty by the NRC contractor using e-mails provided by the ICs. (The ICs may distribute the faculty questionnaires, but the NRC prefers they be distributed by the contractor.) October-November, 2006 - - Institutional Coordinators send out student questionnaires December 10, 2006 - Faculty and student questionnaires due to the NRC December 15, 2006 - Program Questionnaires and Part E of Institutional Questionnaire due to the NRC December, 2007 - NRC database and essay released Additional Resources Comprehensive information about the NRC Assessment of Research-Doctorate programs http://www7.nationalacademies.org/resdoc/index.html. NRC Taxonomy: http://www7.nationalacademies.org/resdoc/Taxonomy.html. The proposed schedule: http://www7.nationalacademies.org/resdoc/study_timetable.html. Author: Marsha Kelman Coordinated by the Higher Education Data Policy Committee. All opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Association for Institutional Research. |