ERIC Digest - ED284522 ERIC Digest ED284522 Academic Program Reviews. Practitioners The heightened interest in college program review is traced to a widespread interest in improving educational quality and the need to respond creatively to financial constraints and external expectations for accountability. Current program reviews have also been designed to aid in decision making about resource reallocation and program discontinuance.
Most institutions assess quality by adopting aspects of all four views.
The continued existence and growth of program review processes suggest that the efforts are supported and that the results can be beneficial, but more systematic study of their effects is needed. Within the last few years, the role of academic program review has emerged as one of the most salient issues in American higher education. Nestled within a context of accountability, program reviews have become a dominant and controversial activity. Moreover, a majority of the multicampus systems have introduced program reviews, and over three-fourths of the nation's colleges and universities employ some type of program review. The heightened interest in program review can be traced to a widespread interest in improving program quality and the need to respond creatively to severe financial constraints and to external constituencies' expectations for accountability.