The NEOUCOM faculty Bylaws require that each academic unit be reviewed at least every seven years.  The process is outlined in Appendix F.  Academic and administrative units of the College are reviewed in a similar manner on a predetermined schedule.  The reviews are coordinated by the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and usually take place between January and April each year.  Review committee members are representative of all college constituencies.  General criteria for both academic and administrative reviews follow.  In addition to the unit’s self study, the reviewers may use a variety of methods including staff and/or constituency interviews, focus groups, surveys and internal or external benchmarks.

 

Criteria for Reviews of Academic Departments

Self-study database should include for the years covered in the review:

  1. Chairperson’s written report (summation of the following);
  2. Medical student evaluations of all courses;
  3. Student performance on Step 1 USMLE, both raw score and percentile score, include total test score for comparison;
  4. Faculty medical student teaching hours (lecture and lab), identify individual faculty members for each year and provide totals for each course, compare to national average;
  5. Graduate course credit hours taught; identify individual faculty members for each year and provide totals for each course;
  6. Number of graduate students per faculty member per year and total number of students in department per year;
  7. Placement of graduating graduate students (provide specifics);
  8. Funded grants, individual faculty per year and totals (include title, funding source, direct costs, indirect costs, total costs and percent effort);
  9. Grant proposals submitted, individual faculty per year and totals;
  10. Articles published per year, individual faculty per year and totals (identify peer-reviewed);
  11. Abstracts published per year, individual faculty per year and totals;
  12. Patents submitted/approved, individual faculty per year;
  13. Description of journal clubs, seminar programs, faculty meetings; and
  14. Current curriculum vitae for each faculty member.

 

Criteria for Reviews of Administrative Areas

1. The documentation prepared by a College department/program/office (hereafter referred to as a unit), which is made available to the reviewers, is crucial in terms of the reviewers gaining an initial overview of the department and in planning the agenda for the review.  It is important that there is a balance between description and evaluation.  The units of the College vary considerably in size and scope, and it is appropriate that any documentation should accurately reflect the nature of the unit under review.

2. The documentation should center on a self-study document, which may be prepared drawing upon a range of sources including departmental plans, annual reports, faculty and staff development reports, evaluation research reports, committee minutes and reports from other central College units.  The following might assist units to construct the self-study document.

  1. History, development and expectations
  2. External demand
  3. Internal demand
  4. Quality of inputs and processes
  5. Quality of outcomes (includes student outcomes)
  6. Size, scope and productivity
  7. Revenue and other resources generated
  8. Costs and other associated expenses
  9. Impact, justification and overall essentiality
  10. Opportunity analysis

3. Units will provide any supplementary descriptive material requested by the Review Committee to assist members in the analysis.  Supplementary material might be made available with the self-study document to be sent to the Committee in advance, or it might be available for reference at the time of the review.

4. The College may determine in advance of a review that a particular aspect of a unit’s activity requires special attention.  Such topics might become known, for example, as a result of annual monitoring.  In such cases, the unit may be asked to prepare additional documentation to cover the identified topic and will be notified of the requirement in advance.

5. Once drafted and approved by the leadership of the department under review, the self-study document should be forwarded to the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, which will then forward the materials to the Review Committee.