Looking Forward by Looking Back: Determining the Value of External Program Reviews

As Canadian universities are pressured to exhibit a range of organizational accountabilities, their various academic, administrative, and support units are required to adopt more integrated and inclusive approaches to assessment and planning. Within the purview of university continuing education units, individual program areas are expected to not only demonstrate their effectiveness and efficiency in response to a multiplicity of pressures, but also to display some form of quantifiable improvement. At the same time, limited resources compel continuing education as a whole to find ways to show evidence of and display their organizational achievements and outcomes. In 2006, Continuing Studies at Simon Fraser University (SFU) began modifying their unit-wide and external review processes for individual programs to bring them more in-line with academic faculties and departments, which are subject to external reviews on a regular basis. This article explores SFU's approach to external reviews through a case study of one particular program review, noting the key findings and decisions made as a result of the reviewer's recommendations. (Contains 1 table.)