Since 1991, the UW System Board of Regents has mandated that academic degree programs (majors) are reviewed at least once every ten years; however, L&S regularly reviewed its academic programs long before that requirement came into effect. The Dean and the Academic Associate Deans oversee the review of academic programs in L&S, and these reviews are frequently associated with a more general review of the unit in which they are housed (usually, the academic department that oversees the degree program). Although the program review process focuses primarily on the review of academic programs and their sponsoring departments, a review of any unit within the college may be convened at the Dean's discretion, or upon the recommendation of the Academic Planning Council. In addition, the APC has instituted a policy calling for the periodic review of certificate programs (which are exempt from the Regents' mandated review). For information on that policy, please refer to our page on Review of Certificate Programs.

The review process begins when the Dean asks the department or program under review to conduct a self study. When the self-study is complete, a review committee composed of members of the L&S faculty (and, on occasion, staff members and/or external reviewers) is convened. In cases where a graduate program is involved, the Graduate School also appoints a member of the committee. The committee reviews the self-study and related materials, interviews members of the department or program (faculty, staff, students, key stakeholders), and produces a report. The department/program under review is offered an opportunity to review the report and to correct any factual errors. When this process is complete, the Academic Planning Council reviews and discusses the self-study, the review committee report and the unit's response to it (if any). After several in-depth discussions of these materials, the APC advises the dean, sharing its consensus on the strengths of the department/program, its contributions to the discipline, college, and university, and what might be done to foster improvement.

Given the role it plays in advising the deans regarding program review, the Academic Planning Council has played an essential role in defining a series of issues to be considered in the course of reviews. The L&S Program Review Guidelines were developed to help departments produce self-studies that are forward-thinking and useful to the departments and to the College. They - and this process - are intended to provoke honest introspection, evaluation, and critique necessary for improvement, and to stimulate departments and programs to consider how effective they are in fulfilling the roles they play within their disciplines, College and University, and - most importantly - in facilitating student learning and outstanding research. To this end, the review questions have been aligned with the University's strategic plan, Connecting Ideas. 

The Assistant Dean and Director of Academic Planning, Program Review and Assessment of Student Learning, Elaine M. Klein, coordinates all of the processes associated with the review of L&S Programs. Questions about the process may be directed to the Associate Dean who works with the program, or to Assistant Dean Klein (kleine@ls.admin.wisc.edu). For the convenience of our readers, a few of the more commonly asked questions are answered below.

Revised August 16 2006 by emk.