Key Academic Priorities for 2006-07:
The Undergraduate Curriculum, Graduate Education, Economic Access
Restructuring the Undergraduate Curriculum
This autumn we are seeking final approval through the governance process of a new undergraduate curriculum. This marks the first comprehensive change to general education at Ohio State in nearly two decades, and, as such, is one of the year's top academic priorities. Here are a quick overview and an update on this initiative.
Last year's review of the undergraduate curriculum by the McHale Committee resulted in a number of recommendations intended to create a more coherent curriculum and give students more flexibility in choosing their coursework. Chief among these were encouraging minors and double majors and allowing them to satisfy certain non-major requirements; instituting a program of interdisciplinary three-quarter course sequences--the so-called freshman clusters; decreasing the number of credit hours in the GEC; establishing a university-wide oversight committee; and reducing the minimum credit hours for our core bachelor of arts program from 191 to 181.
Members of the university community were invited to provide reactions to the recommendations by mid-March, with formal statements to follow by mid-summer from the 14 of our 17 colleges that teach undergraduates. These include the Colleges of the Arts; Biological Sciences; Business, Dentistry; Education and Human Ecology; Engineering; Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences; Humanities; Mathematical and Physical Sciences; Medicine; Nursing; Pharmacy; Social and Behavioral Sciences; and Social Work.
Following review by the Arts and Sciences Faculty Senate, the other colleges with undergraduate programs, and the Council on Academic Affairs, the recommendations will be forwarded to the University Senate for action on those recommendations that need Senate approval. New curricular requirements could begin with the class entering in autumn 2007.
Enhancing Graduate Education
We are likewise continuing our efforts to ensure that the quality of an Ohio State graduate education is second to none. Last year two committees studied the state of graduate education at our institution, with the Freeman Committee (Report Part I and Report Part II) focusing on the alignment of funding with quality in graduate education, and the Beck Committee considering the structure and functions of the Graduate School. The work of these two groups led to a number of thoughtful recommendations, including that of basing the funding for doctoral education on quality rather than credit hours; assessing doctoral programs on a regular cycle; maintaining the Graduate School's present structure, whereby a dean oversees graduate studies and reports to the provost; changing the manner in which Graduate School support is awarded; and implementing new processes for the oversight of graduate education.
The implementation of the committees' recommendations will be the first priority of the new dean of the Graduate School, Professor Patrick Osmer.
Assuring Economic Access
The third of our 2006-07 academic priorities is economic access, with the ultimate goal of positioning Ohio State as the nation's leader in access to higher education. To accomplish that goal, we have created the position of senior advisor for economic access and have named Tally Hart, formerly our director of financial aid, to fill that slot.
Under her leadership, Ohio State is accelerating its efforts to tell a broader and broader public-- starting with students in grade 4--that college is possible. We are stepping up our efforts to educate students and their families about the resources available for low-income students who want to go to college and helping departments and colleges be more strategic in their messages about access. We are also developing programs to encourage economically needy college juniors to think about continuing their studies in graduate and professional school. In addition, Ohio State is leading a collaboration of the Big Ten so that our schools speak to the federal government with a unified voice on issues like Pell grants and financial aid formalities.
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Our successes in restructuring undergraduate education, addressing the challenges of enhancing graduate education, and providing economic access for all qualified students will be major steps toward achieving the overarching goal of the Academic Plan: that Ohio State be the premier public research land-grant university in the nation.
