NRC Assessment of Doctoral Programs - University of Washington Response

National Research Council 2006 Assessment of Doctoral Programs

Resources for Preparing the University of Washington's Response

The University of Washington will be participating in the 2006 National Research Council (NRC) assessment of research-doctorate programs. The NRC conducted its last assessment of doctoral programs in 1995 and has revised its methods substantially for 2006. The assessment will provide benchmarking data on graduate programs throughout the United States and will result in ratings of graduate program quality. The data will be published in an online, searchable database available to the public.

The NRC assessment requires the collection of specific data from the institution, academic programs, faculty members, and graduate students. Data will be collected throughout 2006 through questionnaires developed for each of these constituencies. The Graduate School is serving as Institutional Coordinator for this project, and will assist departments in their responses. The Office of Institutional Studies and the UW Data Warehouse are also assisting in the data tabulation.

NRC will administer four surveys; institutional, program, faculty, and admitted to candidacy students.

What's new

Mar. 7, 2007

An email sent yesterday by the NRC to faculty who have completed the Faculty Questionnaire was somewhat misleading. The text (below) indicated that the NRC would no longer be contacting the respondent and this has led some faculty to ask whether this means they had not been selected as a rater. This is not true. Raters will be selected in late March or early April.

Greetings,

We have received your completed questionnaire and would like to thank you for participating in the 2006 NRC Assessment. Although we will no longer be contacting you, you might still continue to receive reminders from your institution, since they know how many questionnaires have been completed, but not by whom.

Thank you again for your patience, diligence and perseverance.

Feb. 21, 2007

The deadline for completing the Faculty Questionnaire and being considered for selection as a program rater is 9:00AM EST, Friday, February 23.

Jan. 31, 2007

NRC has extended the deadline to Feb 22 for the receipt of Faculty Questionnaires for faculty who wish to be eligible for the rater sample. The Program Questionnaire deadline has been extended to Feb. 8. All UW programs have submitted their Program Questionnaires to the Graduate School (THANK YOU!). This extension will provide more time for checking those responses in the Graduate School and working with programs to address issues before uploading to NRC on Feb. 8th.

Jan. 22, 2007

NRC Will begin sending emails to UW core and new faculty in NRC programs this week to invite them to participate in the Faculty Questionnaire. A tip-sheet for faculty is available on this site.

Jan. 8, 2007

The Program Questionnaire is available for use in MyGradProgram. The deadline for submitting completed Program Questionnaires is January 26, 2007.

Jan. 5, 2007

The Program Questionnaire should be ready to complete in MyGradProgram by Monday, January 8th . An announcement will be made as soon as it is ready. The deadline for UW programs to complete the Program Questionnaire in MyGradProgram has been extended to January 26, 2007.

Dec. 5, 2006

NRC has extended the deadline for completing the Program Questionnaire to February 1, 2006. The deadline for participating UW programs to complete the Program Questionnaire in MyGradProgram will be January 15, 2007. Participating programs should review the Program Questionnaire sample now to facilitate completion of the questionnaire in MyGradProgram when it is available.

Dec. 4, 2006

Notes on completing the Program Questionnaire in MyGradProgram, compiled by the Graduate School.

Nov. 15, 2006

Here is John Mobley's presentation outline from the Program Questionnaire workshops that were held on Nov. 15th.

Nov. 13, 2006

Revised Program Questionnaire with check marks adjacent to questions which Graduate School plans to pre-populate. The word "LIST" appears adjacent to doctoral student financial support sections where the Graduate School will not pre-populate numbers but will provide underlying lists for guidance. Note that the Graduate School will not attempt to pre-populate the section on postdoctoral scholars.

Nov. 9, 2006

Graduate School will host two workshops on the Program Questionnaire on Wednesday, Nov. 15, for participating program faculty and staff. For info email nrc@grad.washington.edu

Nov. 3, 2006

NRC pushes back Program Questionnaire deadline to Jan 15 (Jan 1 for UW programs to submit to Graduate School).

Oct. 24, 2006

Reminder: Deadline for submission of faculty lists through MyGradProgram is Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2006.

Oct. 20, 2006

NRC posts heavily revised "Summary of Clarifications and FAQs"

Oct. 8, 2006

Notes on the Identification of UW Faculty

Oct. 4, 2006

Meeting notes and issues from the September regional meetings

Sept. 26, 2006

Participating UW programs submitted to NRC by the Graduate School

Sept. 21, 2006

Program Questionnaire with check marks adjacent to questions which Graduate School plans to pre-populate

Sept. 13, 2006

NRC Detailed Procedures and Timeline

Aug. 31, 2006

Dean Ortega will outline NRC assessment procedures at the Graduate Program Coordinator retreat on Sept. 22nd. The Graduate School will follow-up with one or more workshops for GPCs and GPAs

Aug. 28, 2006

Email sent from Provost Wise to Deans, Directors, and Chairs

Aug. 14, 2006

Application submitted by Graduate School to UW Human Subjects for IRB approval

Aug. 2, 2006

John Drew and Joan Abe ask Graduate Program Assistants to help identify doctoral cohorts

June 28, 2006

Dean Ortega asks chairs to confirm program assignments to NRC taxonomy