Criteria for Revising Academic Plans and Programs

The Academic Program:

It is essential to include the program’s mission and goals which should be simple and measurable. Members of the department need to ensure achievement of program goals, and these goals need to be consistent with the department, college, and university’s academic goals. The goals also need to be clearly worded and they must be consistent with target learning outcomes. Furthermore, it is necessary that the program’s benchmarking criteria is indicated in addition to national and international benchmarking criteria. (Submission of NCAAA’s program specifications form)

Criteria for preparing program specifications:

The program’s content and design need to be in line with its mission, goals, and outcomes. This enables students to achieve target learning outcomes.

Criteria for preparing academic programs:

1. Maintaining consistency with the program’s goals and learning outcomes.

2.  Maintaining consistency with standards of national and international accreditation.

3. Applying national, regional, and international benchmarking criteria and making use of the best practices applied in similar programs at other academic institutions.

4. Including a detailed plan that indicates the courses, their categories (i.e., theoretical, practical, exercises, etc.), numbers, contact and credit hours, prerequisites, and the semester(s) in which they occur.

5. Submitting a detailed description for each course which includes a general course description, the language of instruction, goals, learning strategies, assessment methods, learning resources, and plans for development.

6. Dividing courses into core, elective, and free courses, and also dividing them according to university, college, or department courses.

7. Indicating the program’s general objective which needs to be documented and clear to all concerned parties. This objective determines targeted areas of knowledge and skills which meet job market requirements.

8. Indicating the program’s specific goals which need to be documented and clear to all concerned parties, and which originate from the general objective of the program.

9. Maintaining consistency between the program’s goals and the department, college, and university’s missions and goals.

10. Maintaining national, regional, and international benchmarking standards in formulating the goals.

11. Including measurable learning and knowledge outcomes that are consistent with the program’s announced goals.

12. Including procedures and instruments to measure learning outcomes and making use of them in revising and assessing the program.

13. Involving stakeholders (i.e., instructors, students, and graduates from both genders, the local community, and employers) in the design and revision of program goals.

Criteria for revising academic plans:

The academic plan’s content and design should be consistent with the program’s mission, goals, and outcomes. This enables students to achieve target learning outcomes.

 Criteria for preparing academic plans:

1. Maintaining consistency with the program’s goals and learning outcomes.

2.  Maintaining consistency with standards of national and international accreditation.

3. Applying national, regional, and international benchmarking criteria and making use of the best practices applied in similar programs at other academic institutions.

4. Including a detailed plan that indicates the courses, their categories, numbers, contact and credit hours, prerequisites, and the semester(s) in which they occur.

5. Submitting a detailed description for each course which includes a general course description, the language of instruction, goals, learning strategies, assessment methods, and learning resources.

6. Dividing courses into core, elective, and free courses, and also dividing them according to university, college, or department courses.