The successful integration of the research mission of a university with its undergraduate and graduate academic missions requires rigorous, periodic, and comprehensive external reviews of academic programs and faculty intellectual directions.  UC Santa Cruz has long been committed to external reviews of its academic departments, and continually strives to improve the process.

The campus administration, in concert with the academic senate, comprehensively reviews the mission of its academic departments.  UC Santa Cruz recently updated its program review process to better address many of the issues associated with educational effectiveness and program improvement; this review process along with two case studies applicable to the WASC review is described in the essay below.

Program Review as a Means to Ensure Educational Effectiveness and Improvement [pdf] This essay about academic program review includes two case studies, the Economics Department and the Environmental Studies Department; the documents below supplement those case studies. Case Study:  Economics   A.  Economics External Review Charge (August 2002) B.   Economics Self-Study List of Appendices (August 2002) C.  Economics Fact Sheet on Business Management Economics, Diversity, Enrollments and Workload (June 2003) Case Study:  Environmental Studies   D.  Environmental Studies – Universal Charge E.   Environmental Studies – Preliminary Self-Study List of Appendices (June 2004)   a.   Statistics provided by Planning and Budget Office F.   Environmental Studies – Student Surveys (pending)   a.   Graduate Student Survey Method and Results (June 2004) b.   Undergraduate Student Survey Method and Results (pending)