Academic program review
APR FAQs
The following are frequently asked questions by participants going through the Academic Program Review process. If you have a question and don't see it listed here, please call or email the UPRA office.
The unit under review will pay travel expenses, lodging, and an honorarium for each out-of-town visitor. The unit under review will pay the local community member/recent graduate an honorarium as well as cover business-related meals. The unit under review is also responsible for covering funding for any (optional) entertainment, receptions, or other social functions.
Read more about the site visit schedule arrangement and coordination in our manual.
There is no set limit on the honorariums offered. It is up to the unit to decide how much the honorarium will be. Some units offer the non-local visitors a bit more due to having invested more time in traveling, other units don't distinguish between the two. The most common honorarium right now is $1500-2000.
The unit under review is responsible for making hotel reservations, ground transportation to and from the hotel and airport, as well as making sure that the visitors are escorted to and from the scheduled meetings and activities while visiting campus. The visitor should make his/her own airline reservation and transportation to and from home to the airport. Visitors should submit original travel receipts to the unit for reimbursement.
This is up to the unit as to whether they want to take the visitors out for each meal. However, scheduling the meals may make it easier to fit in all other required meetings—meetings with different faculty, administrators, students, alumni, and community members, as well as touring facilities (see the sample of Site Visit Schedule, Appendix 6.) Keep in mind that the visitors need time amongst themselves for discussion and preparation for the site visit report as well, which could be at dinner one evening or breakfast the next morning.
Yes, the UPRA office sets the times for the entry and exit meetings. The entry meeting should always be scheduled for 8:30 a.m. of the first day and the exit meeting at 2:30 p.m. in the afternoon on the second day. On occasion, the UPRA may be able to accommodate a slight time change. Please check with the UPRA office.
The entry meeting should be scheduled for 8:30-9:15 a.m. and the exit meeting should be scheduled for 2:30-3:30 p.m.
The entry meeting attendees: UPRA Officer, the Dean, UPRA Associate Director, and the head of the unit
The exit meeting attendees: UPRA Officer, the Dean, and the UPRA Associate Director. The dean will determine if any additional attendees are to be included in the exit meeting. Visitors usually offer preliminary findings at the exit meeting.
The locations of the entry and exit meetings are chosen by the unit under review. The locations should be added to the site visit schedule and forwarded to the UPRA office.
These meetings can also be scheduled in the Fulton Center if the unit has difficulty finding available rooms within their location. If you would like these meetings to be held in the Fulton Center, the UPRA office can assist with scheduling them.
Recent graduate/community nominees should have:
- strong familiarity with the program
- should not have financial association with ASU
- should reside in the Phoenix metropolitan area
As an ASU instructor, they have a financial association with the University and therefore would not be eligible to be a site visitor.
Your unit files a yearly assessment report with UOEEE for your programs. You should include your assessment plans for each program along with the assessment reports that have been filed in an Appendix. In the body of your self-study you should include some narrative analysis of what you have learned from these reports and any changes you have made to the curriculum based on these reports.
Also, you can check with UOEEE for results from the student surveys to assist you with placement outcomes for your undergraduate and graduate students.
Other curriculum offerings would be offerings that were not standard classes, etc. For instance, if the unit uses internships to give your students experience that is not graded but teaches them other necessary skills.
For more information, please see “Student Learning Outcomes Assessment” in the self-study template (Appendix 2.)
There is no page limit to the length of your self-study. For larger units, the body of the self-study is usually submitted as one document with however many appendices needed.
November 1st.
Please provide CV's for all faculty members that contribute significantly to the unit/programs. This means all tenure track and research faculty. No need to include visiting lecturers CV's, etc.
Faculty CV’s are not limited in length.
All of the tables in the template are examples of what we are looking for. Any questions about the actual data should go to the University Office of Institutional Analysis.
No. The unit response and dean's summary should be independent from each other, and not a collaborative report.
FAQ's by site visitors
You will be responsible for arranging your flight reservations. Once you make your reservations, please forward them to the UPRA office at apr@asu.edu.
The unit under review will reimburse you for your flight, please make sure you send in original receipts with the reimbursement claim form at the end of your trip.
Your hotel reservation and ground transportation will be arranged by the unit under review. Depending on the time of arrival, the unit may request the service of an Uber or Lyft from Sky Harbor Int’l Airport to the hotel.
The unit under review will forward the Reimbursement Claim Form to you along with your lodging and transportation information.
The site visits take up two full days. Meetings start early on the first day and end late afternoon on the second day.
You will want to make your arrival to Arizona the night before the first day of the visit. We suggest that you schedule departing flight arrangements not sooner than 7:00 p.m. on the second day to allow for transportation to the airport and security clearance. If it is more convenient for you to stay an extra night and fly out the next day, we encourage you to do that and you will be reimbursed for that expense.
During a site visit you will:
- analyze the self-study report
- collect additional relevant information
- meet with faculty, students, alumni, community representatives, unit administrators (e.g., academic dean, Provost’s Office)
- prepare a report identifying program strengths, concerns, and recommendations
- tour the university and examine facilities and other resources relevant to the unit
The UPRA office will send an invite to you for accessing a shared file that will hold the self-study report, the site visit schedule, and your travel itinerary. You should expect to receive this two weeks prior to your visit to Arizona State University.
Site visit report can be submitted by email to: apr@asu.edu
Or can be mailed to:
University Program Review and Accreditation Office
UPRA Executive Director
Office of the University Provost Arizona State University
PO Box 877805
Tempe, AZ 85287-7805
Please make sure that you send us the site visitor signature page completed and signed to signify that you concur agree or disagree with the site visit report. If you forget to attach it to the site visit report, we will accept them separate from the report. Please email to apr@asu.edu.
The unit under review should receive all original receipts and the reimbursement claim form. Please contact the unit under review for where and to whom to send them.
Once the UPRA office has received the site visit report and an executed signature page for each site visitor, the UPRA office will notify the unit under review to release all payments to the site visitors for expenses and honorariums.