Graduate Studies Annual Update
This past year has been a successful one for Graduate Studies at BYU. Our focus this year has been to direct the work and resources of Graduate Studies in a transparent and supportive way that allows faculty and students the chance to experience more success in their chosen fields of study and fulfill the Mission and Aims of a BYU education.
We have endeavored to work more closely with the Graduate Council, Associate Deans, Graduate Coordinators, faculty, and students. Our accomplishments this year are a credit to the entire graduate studies community and our growing capacity to communicate and work together.
A few of the highlights of our efforts include:
By making some administrative adjustments that created greater efficiencies, as well as changes to financial management and practices, Graduate Studies was able to increase annual allocations to graduate programs by 11% for the year 2020. The amount of this additional allocation totaled $500,000. Although no added restrictions or strings were attached to these additional allocations, chairs and program coordinators were encouraged to use the increased funding to promote the success and quality of their graduate programs, specifically in areas that benefit students such as graduate student recruiting, increased compensation, mentoring initiatives, research, and travel.
In an effort to improve communication between Graduate Studies and stakeholders within colleges on campus, the Graduate Council has been reappointed with associate deans from each college. This change allows senior decision makers the opportunity to collaborate on important issues, facilitating improved clarity while acknowledging diverse perspectives, as well as creating faster and more uniform implementation of their decisions at the college level. In addition, this new Graduate Council also meets on occasion with a few additional specialists forming the Graduate Curriculum Council. All graduate curriculum requests are now reviewed and approved by this council. Going forward, these committee changes and assignments will be of great value in facilitating discussions and will lead to better decisions about policy modifications.
The Graduate Studies Office has undergone organizational staff restructuring to improve communications and efficiency, all of which will allow us to better manage the varying needs of graduate programs across campus. Our staff now includes: Logan Gillette, Interim Dean, also responsible for graduate admissions and recruitment; James Crane, assistant dean of curriculum and professional development; Jan Goodrich, financial controller; Denise Stanton, advisement administrator; Janice Robinson, special projects manager; Suanne Wilda, office manager; Doug Harvey, data analyst; and MariLee Allred, executive assistant to the dean. A complete list of staff assignments and responsibilities is available here.
Over the past year, Graduate Studies has been evaluating its existing assessment approaches and is now working to develop more effective and timely approaches to the assessment of its processes and programs. As a first step, in order to review our graduate programs, effective immediately, Graduate Studies will begin procuring external reviews of our students’ scholarly products (theses and dissertations) from each department on a more frequent basis, including twice every seven years in contrast to once every seven years. In addition, we will be seeking six reviews per cycle instead of three, for a total of twelve reviews over the seven-year academic review cycle. This will help us to better understand how our students' work compares with what is expected from high-quality graduate programs. This action is supported by the University Assessment Office.
Graduate Studies has updated the policy with respect to final thesis and dissertation submissions. In the past, many specific formatting requirements have been articulated, both through official and unofficial communications. In our efforts to provide transparency and clarity, Graduate Studies will now only require a specific formatted title page, an abstract, and bookmarks in the ETD. Style standards for the chapters of a thesis or dissertation (e.g. line spacing, fonts, pagination) will no longer be dictated by Graduate Studies. Flexibility is given to each college to determine thesis and dissertation formatting.
Previously, exams were required to be scheduled at least two weeks in advance of the exam date. The new policy allows for final oral defense scheduling up to one day in advance of the exam time, providing more flexibility and accommodation for students and faculty.
In an effort to better track graduate students' progress, a new online graduate progress system has been implemented for students, program managers, and committee members. The most welcome aspect of the new system is the ability of committee members to make student approvals online, replacing the need for actual signatures and paper forms. The new graduate program pages are tailored to each individual program and provide students with the much-needed ability to view their milestones, including selection of committees, programs of study, thesis review, and submission of the Electronic Thesis or Dissertation (ETD).
The points listed above highlight some of the changes that have been made over the past year in Graduate Studies that have had the greatest impact on the efforts to support and encourage graduate programs of consequence to be in alignment with BYU’s Mission and Aims. We are fully committed to continuing in this long-term effort—one that will require commitment, patience and resolve—to streamline and simplify the work of Graduate Studies to the benefit of our students, faculty, and community.