ACADEMIC ANNUAL REVIEW

The doctoral program recognizes the importance of providing structured opportunities for students to receive feedback regarding their academic progress through the program. The academic annual review is a collaborative process in which students and their educational advisors or major professors discuss the student’s academic status in the program and potential for successful completion of the Ph.D.

1. In the spring semester of each academic year, the doctoral program manager will send a request to all doctoral faculty members to provide a brief evaluation of doctoral students’ academic performance with whom they have had contact since the last evaluation period. Faculty members may have taught a student in class, supervised a teaching assistant or research assistant, served on a student’s dissertation committee, etc. The doctoral program manager will assemble the results and provide them to each student’s major professor or educational advisor for review and inclusion in the student’s file.

2. The students will receive an annual review evaluation form that is specified to their program of studies. The students must complete their portion of the written annual evaluation form, including a statement that summarizes their progress toward fulfilling their program requirements as well as major accomplishments. After that, students should schedule an appointment to meet with their major professor/ educational advisor to complete the evaluation by the due date.

3. The major professor/educational advisor and student discuss the student’s academic progress, and together develop goals for the upcoming academic year. The major professor/educational advisor then adds the annual evaluation forms to the student file, and forwards a recommendation to the doctoral program manager, who coordinates a review with the Doctoral Program Committee (DPC).

4. The DPC reviews each student’s overall academic performance during the preceding year. If the committee is in unanimous agreement during discussion, the student will be retained, placed on probation, or recommended for dismissal accordingly. If the DPC does not reach unanimous agreement, each DPC member will recommend retention, probation, or dismissal on a written, private ballot, including a brief description of reasons for the vote. If the vote does not result in a majority opinion, the student will be placed on one-year probation, and the major professor/educational advisor and DPC will re-evaluate the student’s progress after that year. During the probation period, the major professor/educational advisor will meet regularly with the student and implement remedial interventions, as necessary. The doctoral program director will send annual review letters to all students and inform the dean of all DPC actions.

Note: The DPC review meeting typically occurs during the last month of the academic year. Because final grades for the spring semester have not been determined yet, it may be necessary to modify DPC decisions once final grades become available. If this is necessary, the doctoral program director will coordinate any necessary modifications with DPC members.

5. The doctoral program manager will notify the Graduate School (through GST) of the annual review outcomes.

Note: Samples of annual review forms are available on the doctoral program Canvas site.