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University Daily Kansan, January 31, 1983
Study says programs for grads lag behind
By DAVID POWLS Staff Reporter
A national survey of university graduate programs, which rated KU programs at or below average, failed to take into account the structures of individual program and recent budget reductions at the University, faculty in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences said yesterday.
The survey was conducted last year by the Conference Board of Associated Research Councils. It reviewed 2,700 graduate programs in 32 disciplines at 228 universities. The survey considered the number of graduate students, the number of faculty members and the number of articles published by faculty of graduate programs across the United States.
Criteria such as effectiveness of departments, program improvement over the last five years, faculty achievement and faculty familiarity with the programs were rated on a 10-point scale with 50 being average.
GERHARD ZUTHER, chairman of the English department, said his department didn't score higher on the survey because most English courses at the University were geared toward undergraduates.
The English department had scores of 49 for quality; 50 for effectiveness; 43 for improvement; and 45 for familiarity.
"A great percentage of time is spent teaching undergraduates at KU." Zuther said. "And therefore less time is devoted to publishing materials."
Robert Lineberry, dean of the college, said evaluations made by KU departments themselves were more meaningful than national surveys.
"National surveys are nearly out-dated when they are published," he
HE SAID THE internal rating system used in the college included the quality of the graduate students, the quality of graduate placement, morale of graduate students and faculty, and departmental reviews.
Charles Himmelberg, chairman of the mathematics department, said the faculty members agreed with the new course in which were in the low 40s and high 30s.
The graduate program in mathematics scored below the national mean because it has lost six faculty since the last five years, Himmelberg said.
"We've only been able to replace two of the six faculty members," Himmelberg said. "If we are to improve, we need a lot more faculty members that we have lost."
The department of human development and family life is restructuring its doctorate program, although it scored above the national mean, said its chair
"We didn't rate as high as we should have," Sherman said. "We discussed reorganizing the Ph.D. program before the national survey came out, and we plan to continue reorganizing now, because it is always room for improvement."
HDFL SCORED 56 in quality; 17 in ef-
fecency; 48 in improvement; and 17 in
familiarity.
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Charles Wyttenbach, chairman of the physiology and cell biology department, said he was pleased with his findings. "We were baffled by it," too, was below the mean.
That department had scores of 39, 32,
36 and 41.
"Given the financial support we receive and the lack of facilities and equipment, I think we scored remarkably well," Wyttenbach said.
The national survey ratings are often based toward large programs that are
CHAE-JIN LEE, associate dean of the college, said he was discussing the survey results with department heads to find ways to improve their programs. Lee said no definite changes in policies had been decided yet.
"I am approaching this survey seriously," he said, "even though it is not a question."
Michael Storm, chairman of the psychology department, which had scores of in the high 50s, said large projections don't necessarily score high on the survey.
"Harvard doesn't have any large programs," he said, "but every one of their faculty members was well-known and that made the difference.
"Our own Spanish and Portuguese department is small, but it scored
The Spanish and Portuguese program had scores in the low 60s.
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