Graduate Program Review 2012-2013
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Graduate Program Review 2012-2013 Department of Biological Sciences Lou Densmore, Chair College of Arts & Sciences Jeff Williams, Interim Dean November 2012 PROGRAM REVIEW OUTLINE Department of Biological Sciences I. Program Overview – A one to two-page summary of department’s vision and goals. II. Graduate Curricula and Degree Programs A. Scope of programs within the department B. Number and types of degrees awarded - Degrees Awarded – Academic Year (chart) - Comparison of Degrees Awarded – Fall Data (Peer info table) - Program Degrees Awarded (table) C. Undergraduate and Graduate semester credit hours - Semester Credit Hours – Academic Year (chart) - SCH compared to Budget - Academic Year (chart) D. Number of majors in the department - Enrollment by Level – Fall Data (chart) - Comparison of Enrollment – Fall Data (Peer info table) - Program Enrollment (table) E. Course offerings and their enrollments over the past six years (enrollment trends by course) - Course Enrollments by Academic Year (table) F. Courses cross listed III. Faculty A. Number, rank and demographics of the faculty (tenured and tenure track), GPTI’s and TA’s - Teaching Resources (chart) - Tenured and Tenure-Track by Rank - Fall Data (chart) - Comparison of Full-time Faculty (Peer info table) B. List of faculty members (graduate and non-graduate) (table) C. Summary of the number of refereed publications and creative activities (table) D. Responsibilities and leadership in professional societies - Professional Leadership (table) - Committee service (table) E. Assess average faculty productivity for Fall semesters only (use discipline appropriate criteria to determine) - Faculty Workload (table) - College SCH/FTE – Fall Data (chart) - Department SCH/FTE – Fall Data (chart) IV. Graduate Students A. Demographics of applicants and enrolled students - Graduate Student Summary by Category – AY (chart) - Graduate Student Summary by Year – AY (chart) - Graduate Applicants by Region – Fall/Summer Data (chart) - Graduate Applicants - Fall Data (table) - Admitted Graduate Students - Fall Data (table) - Enrolled New Graduate Students - Fall Data (table) - Demographics of Enrolled Graduate Students - Fall Data (table) - Demographics of Enrolled Undergraduate Students - Fall Data (table) B. Test scores (GRE, GMAT or TOEFL) of enrolled students - Average GRE Scores for Enrolled Graduate Students – Fall Data (chart) C. GPA of new students - New Graduate Students GPA by Level – Fall Data (chart) D. Time to Degree in Years (chart) E. Provide a breakdown of how many enrolled graduate students are RA’s. TA’s or GPTI’s (chart) F. Initial position and place of employment of graduates over the past 6 years (table) G. Type of financial support available for graduate students. H. Number of students who have received national and university fellowships, scholarships and other awards - fellowships awarded (table) I. Percentage (%) of full time students receiving financial support J. Graduate Student Publications and Creative Activities (table) – number of discipline-related refereed papers/publication, juried creative/performance accomplishments, book chapters, books, and external presentations per year per student. K. Programs for mentoring and professional preparation of graduate students. L. Department efforts to retain students and graduation rates M. Percentage of Full Time students per semester – Fall data V. Department A. Department operating expenses - Department Operating Cost - Academic Year (chart) - Department Operating Cost as a Fraction of Employees - (table) B. Summary of Proposals (Submitted) - Summary of Number of Proposals Written and Accepted (table) C. External Research expenditures - Summary of Faculty Awards (table) - Research Expenditures (chart) - Peer Institution Info (if available) (table) D. Internal funding - Source of Internal Funds (TTU) - (table) E. Scholarships and endowments F. Departmental resources for research and teaching (i.e. classroom space, lab facilities) - (table) G. HEAF expenditures (table) H. External Program Accreditation – Name of body and date of last program accreditation review including description of body and accreditation specifics. VI. Conclusions – a one- to two-page summary of the observed deficiencies and needs identified by your review. Highlight areas of greatest need and areas of significant contributions. VII. Appendices – should include, but not be limited to, the following: Table of Contents A. Strategic plan - Attachment from Strategic Planning website B. Curriculum Map C. Graduate Course Offerings (table) D. Graduate Student Handbook E. Graduate Student Association(s) - Description and information F. Graduate Faculty Information (from Digital Measures) 1 I. Program Overview The Texas Tech University (TTU) Department of Biological Sciences' (DBS) mission is to embrace and integrate all aspects of the life science and related teaching. research and educational outreach, to develop and deliver and effective modern curriculum for graduate and undergraduate majors in the biological sciences and for non-majors taking biology classes, to contribute to basic knowledge and technology through faculty and student research, and to establish a departmental environment grounded in open and honest communication, mutual support, recognition of diverse individual contributions, and trust. The vision statement of DBS is as follows: From a platform of innovative and effective approaches that integrate undergraduate and graduate education with multi-disciplinary research, the Department of Biological Sciences will achieve national and international leadership in research, scholarship, and education at all academic levels and provide campus-wide leadership in the integration on the life sciences. Broadly speaking our research and graduate education efforts are focused in six major areas: Animal Physiology and Biomedical Science, several aspects of Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, Microbiology, Plant Physiology and Molecular Biotechnology, and Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics. We still offer the ability to have broad and in-depth training in Organismal Biology, which makes us unusual among many peer departments. These strengths allow us to recruit students from a wide range of backgrounds. They also help foster collaborations with colleagues in other TTU units, with the Health Sciences Center and with both national and international researchers. We have faculty or graduate students 'on the ground' in Africa, Iraq and the Ukraine, China, and Australia and have active research projects ongoing with colleagues in several parts of Southeast Asia, Central and South America. Our M.S. degrees in Biology, Microbiology and Zoology are designed to provide detailed training and exposure to our students. There are opportunities for individual research and exploration in each student's discipline; we mentor and train our students in both research and teaching methods, preparation of manuscripts and presentation of one's results in poster and oral formats; and we develop the skills necessary to either pursuing a Ph.D. or finding employment. For our Ph.D. students in Biology and Zoology (although the latter degree is being eliminated and in the future we will be awarding the Ph.D. in Biology with specialization in a number of different areas), their programs provide in-depth exposure to Biology in general; to foster and support individual research projects in the student's own sub-discipline, to train and mentor students in research methods, preparation of manuscripts and oral communication skills; and to mentor our students to be successful faculty and researchers. To assist our Graduate Program efforts and increase academic diversity in DBS, we initiated a Teaching Postdoctoral Fellow Program in 2003 that has continued on through the present. Although the goal of the program is to train new Ph.D.’s in pedagogy as they assist in teaching, at the same time that they develop research collaborations, many of these individuals interact directly with our graduate students in teaching and research endeavors. In addition in the Spring of 2012, one of the Teaching Postdocs, Dr. Stephanie Lockwood with departmental approval a support began teaching a 3 hr course in Biological Pedagogy that will a requirement for all Biological Sciences 2 graduate students that desire a Teaching Assistantship and have not had a similar course. Although it is early, all of the feedback on Dr. Lockwood's program has been positive and it may well be used as a model for all STEM departments. Assessment of the Department's efforts to improve graduate education focuses on: 1) guaranteeing that M.S. or Ph.D. students that graduate from our program successfully compete for suitable academic, government or industry positions; 2) increasing the number and quality of publications by our graduate students; 3) increasing the number of awards and honors that our students earn at national or international meetings; and 4) increasing the numbers of scholarships and/or fellowships that our students receive from local (e.g., university) and national scientific societies or philanthropic organizations that support graduate education. Since 2006, we have been quite successful in placing our Ph.D.’s in positions that are most suited to their career choices, be that industry, government jobs or as faculty in teaching and research colleges and universities. To prepare our students, we encourage and support their travel to make presentations at regional, national and international meetings. We