Students transferring to other institutions is the most common reason students withdraw from Brandeis, a self-study published in September 2018 found. The study also looked into educational effectiveness and external and internal reviews of academic departments.
In the study, Brandeis examined areas of educational effectiveness as part of the university’s accreditation process through the New England Commissions of Higher Education (NECHE). The eighth of nine NECHE standards focuses on educational effectiveness and student retention rates.
Standard Eight: Educational Effectiveness
The eighth standard, “Educational Effectiveness,” looks to make sure that the university is obtaining a substantial amount of information from graduates about what they have gained through their college experience and which areas in the university can be improved as a whole.
Transferring to other schools is the largest reason students leave Brandeis, “which can be a sign of dissatisfaction with the quality of education,” writes the self-study. An analysis conducted by the university found that most of these transfers are because students are looking for a different type of school than what Brandeis offers.
These types of schools include: a small liberal arts college, a large university with a greater variety in programs or a state school with lower tuition costs.
The second reason for withdrawal is for physical or mental health reasons, which has been a “cause of concern” for the university. Data from the National College Health Assessment shows that undergraduate students at Brandeis experience greater levels of anxiety and depression than their peers at other institutions.
The self-study added that 10 or fewer students also withdraw for academic reasons.
Measures of success for highly selective colleges and universities are the “exclusivity of admissions process” and “success of graduating students,” according to the self-study.
At Brandeis specifically, the university measures success based on the graduation rates of students. From academic years 2011 through 2017, the first-year to sophomore retention rate was 94 percent with a 91 percent six-year graduation rate.
The university also found that female students graduated at higher rates than male students. Asian American students were retained and graduated at the highest rate, followed by white students, international students, black students and Latino students, according to the self-study.
The Senior Survey, given to all Brandeis graduates, is another method in which the university is able to gain insights on the effectiveness of education. The survey has various questions that look into the graduate’s overall experience at Brandeis and their plans after graduation.
The survey demonstrated that, on average, 97 percent of graduates are employed, attending graduate school or doing some meaningful activity within one year of graduation.
The university also conducts external and internal reviews of different departments and programs, which add an additional perspective on the success of education compared to peer institutions. These reviews look at the curriculum, degree requirements, syllabi, faculty staffing levels, administrative support and looks into the experiences and opinions of both faculty and students.
The Office of the Provost created an ad hoc assessment committee in 2006 to address the issue of evaluating departments on campus. This committee created university-wide learning goals and sponsored workshops on developing learning goals for individual departments, which are showcased on each department’s website, according to the self-study.
The assessment committee decided to change these assessments to a more decentralized model, which allows each department to choose how they want to evaluate their effectiveness.
Senior Associate Provost for Academic Affairs Kim Godsoe told The Brandeis Hoot in an interview that a lot of assessment is typically decentralized because of the diversity of each department.
“NECHE is just one form of assessment that the university can use to determine their effectiveness,” she said.
One of the advantages of this type of assessment model is that departments are “better able to design, reflect on, and engage in their own assessment processes,” writes the self-study. “[Departments] are more likely to embrace assessment as a tool for understanding what their students are learning and what expectations exceed student knowledge.”
The university also recognizes that a disadvantage of this model is the compliance between departments. Departments are able to choose how often they complete the assessment, so it is up to the university to monitor how much each department does assessments.
Godsoe added that it is a huge burden on not only the university but also departments to perform these assessments every year because of scheduling and determining the best form of assessment.
This is the sixth part in a series looking into the self-study.
