CURRICULUM REVIEW PROCESS

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS
STEPHEN F. AUSTIN STATE UNIVERSITY

Originated: March 27, 1996
Revised: March 23, 1998

SCOPE

This document describes both periodic and ongoing review of the undergraduate and graduate curricula of the College of Business at the college level. Curriculum review at the department level is conducted in accordance with SFA policy A-4, Academic Program Review/Evaluation. The attached flow charts ("Internal Flow for College of Business Curriculum Changes Originating in Undergraduate or Graduate Curriculum Content and Evaluation Committee" and "Internal Flow for College of Business Curriculum Changes Originating in a College of Business Department") illustrate the suggested routings for curriculum changes, which vary depending on how the change originates. The routings ensure that:

--all changes affecting a particular department are reviewed by the department.

--all changes affecting college-wide programs or educational objectives are reviewed by an appropriate college-wide committee.

COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW

A comprehensive review should be done no less often than every five years beginning in 1996. A review should be undertaken sooner if conditions warrant. In particular, a review should be undertaken shortly after each review of the college mission. The following steps will be accomplished for each comprehensive review cycle:

1. The review process will be initiated by the College of Business Dean, who will notify the Undergraduate Curriculum Content and Evaluation Committee (UCCEC) and the Graduate Curriculum Content and Evaluation Committee (GCCEC) that a review is due to begin.
   
   
2. Information gathering:

1. College "assessment" processes include periodic surveys of the College's various stakeholders to identify their needs, and results from the most recent of these surveys should be made available to the UCCEC and GCCEC. At a minimum, surveys of students, alumni, faculty, parents, and businesses (employers) should be utilized. Input from student and business "advisory councils" should also be collected if possible.

2. Simultaneously, the Dean and curriculum committees should arrange for "standard" syllabi to be updated for all courses required by the respective degree programs. So far as possible, equivalent information should be gathered for courses required as part of the university "general education" requirement.

3. Each committee should obtain detailed curriculum information from several competing universities for use in "benchmarking." In addition, each committee should arrange to have the SFASU College of Business Curriculum reviewed by at least one independent paid consultant serving as a faculty member at a comparable university. The review by a comparable university was not included in the initial review cycle.

3. The undergraduate and graduate committees should separately accomplish their assigned tasks taking into account the college mission, accreditation requirements, survey results, current curriculum content, content of curricula at competing universities, assessment of SFASU curricula by comparable universities, and other factors deemed appropriate:

1. Review/revise educational objectives for the BBA and MBA programs. Educational objectives for the various majors within each degree program will be handled by the departments responsible and are not a part of this review process.

2. Review the current curriculum for compliance with the stated educational objectives and other factors noted above.

3. Recommend curriculum changes as warranted. Any proposed changes should be distributed to the College faculty and reviewed in accordance with the attached "Internal Flow for College of Business Curriculum Changes Originating in Undergraduate or Graduate Curriculum Content and Evaluation Committee."

4. Prepare a summary report of the review/revision process and deliver it to the College Dean.

4. The Dean and the respective committee chairs should monitor progress on any proposed changes and reconvene the committee(s) if necessary to resolve problems.

ONGOING REVIEW

Between (and during) comprehensive reviews, the UCCEC and GCCEC should convene as necessary to review curriculum changes routed to them in accordance with the attached flow charts. The committee(s) may also convene as directed by the College Dean to address specific college-wide curriculum issues.

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