Earlier this semester, the University of Maine released a list of 215 academic programs that it ranked based on metrics such as enrollment, credit hours, degrees awarded and potential for job growth.
This data, according to the university, is being used in a strategic planning process — called “strategic re-envisioning” — that began unfolding last year. The goal of the exercise is to re-think how UMaine can best serve its current and future students, while addressing serious budget challenges such as declining student credit hours and a $1 billion deferred-maintenance deficit.
Depending on how the programs were rated, they received a label: mostly “distinction,” “steady state” or “review.”
Programs of distinction are doing “extraordinarily well,” university leaders explained during an October meeting discussing how programs were evaluated. Programs in a steady state are contributing well to campus but have not reached the same excellence as programs of distinction; and programs labeled “review” could be revamped, they explained.
These labels are “crude categories” that are just a starting point for analysis, university President Joan Ferrini-Mundy wrote in a September email to the Faculty Senate, UMaine’s representative body for professors that develops and oversees academic policies.
“Given the complex interrelationships among academic programs and inherent data challenges, sorting these programs in a strictly rule-based way on the basis of solely quantitative data could result in misleading or erroneous categorization,” Ferrini-Mundy wrote in the email.
After the university analyzed programs based on different data points, it asked deans to also provide qualitative information and discuss the metrics with their departments. Deans will submit recommendations on how to address programs — for instance, whether they need more investment or restructuring — by Dec. 15.
See the September email from Ferrini-Mundy with the program rankings here. Watch a video that provides updates on strategic planning and explains the metrics used to analyze programs here.
See how different programs were ranked by the university based on their composite scores. The Maine Monitor color coded the categories: Programs of distinction are green; programs in a steady state are orange; and those in “review” are red.
