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April 8, 2002 Volume 26, Issue 32 |
One bachelor's degree program and 11 graduate programs at MSU were placed on three-year review status at the March meeting of the Board of Trustees because they do not currently meet state Institutions of Higher Learning requirements for numbers of graduates or student credit-hour production.
Across the eight-university IHL system, 39 programs were placed on three-year probation and 17 will be suspended or phased out as a result of IHL's most recent Academic Productivity Review, which is conducted periodically.
At the undergraduate level, a program is considered low producing if it does not have 15 majors per faculty member or produce 225 student credit hours per faculty member. Master's degree programs are targeted if they fall below three graduates over a five-year period and doctoral programs are flagged if they average fewer than 1.5 graduates over five years.
The bachelor's degree in music education at MSU was identified as having too few majors, although music program enrollments across the nation typically have a low student-faculty ratio because so much of the instruction is necessarily one-on-one. (Bachelor's degree programs in music at the University of Southern Mississippi, which has 400 students in its School of Music, also were cited for low numbers.)
At MSU, where the music education department focuses on producing band directors, choral directors and music educators, rather than performers, goals call for an increase to 100 majors over the next three years. The program is justified in any case on the basis of a state need for music educators, university officials say.
The IHL Academic Productivity Review also identifies the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology as being a low producer of bachelor's degrees-although the department offers only master's and doctoral degrees.
Master's degree programs cited for low numbers of graduates include those in architecture, biochemistry, entomology, genetics, plant pathology, and poultry science, all of which are the only such programs in Mississippi and are justified on the basis of state need and the university's mission, MSU officials say.
Targeted master's programs in animal physiology and physics are attracting new students and appear viable. The master's degree in agricultural pest management is under review at the department level and the university may recommend that it be suspended.
Doctoral programs cited are those in computer engineering, where enrollment is increasing, and in plant pathology, which is important to the state's agricultural base.
The IHL review recommended suspension of enrollment in the master's program in agricultural economics, which the university already has done pending evaluation of a new Ph.D. in applied economics. Students are accepted directly into the Ph.D. program without a master's degree.
IHL also recommended suspension of the master's program in engineering mechanics, with which the university concurred, and a phase-out of the master's in systems management, where admissions were suspended two years ago.