Evaluating Academic Programs: With Applications to U.S. Graduate Decision Science Programs

Authors:
Ralph L. Keeney;Kelly E. See;Detlof von Winterfeldt
Affiliations:
Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, Box 90120, Durham, North Carolina 27708-0120;Stern School of Business, New York University, 44 West 4th Street, New York, New York 10012-1106;School of Policy, Planning, and Development, University of Southern California, Ronald Tutor Hall, Room 310, Los Angeles, California 90089-2902
Venue:
Operations Research
Year:
2006

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Abstract

This paper describes a decision analysis methodology to evaluate academic programs. It avoids the shortcomings of the well-known evaluations of universities and academic programs produced by the public media. In addition to evaluating traditional departments and schools, the methodology is designed to evaluate interdisciplinary programs or fields that typically span many areas of a university, such as operations research, risk analysis, and decision science. We first discuss general principles of using this methodology for the evaluation of disciplinary or interdisciplinary academic programs. Next, we apply this methodology to interdisciplinary graduate decision science programs in United States universities, focusing on both prescriptive decision analysis and descriptive decision research. Finally, we suggest how the methodology might be implemented to evaluate operations research programs.