The Middle States Commission on Higher Education evaluation team completed their reaccreditation site visit of Johns Hopkins on Wednesday. The two-and-half day visit from faculty of Hopkins' peer schools involved formal and informal talks and focus groups with faculty and students regarding the overall experience of undergraduate education.
Added to this year's evaluation was a self-study done by Hopkins entitled "The Challenge of Improving Undergraduate Education in a Research-Intensive Environment."
"The response we received was very positive," said Paula Berger, vice provost for academic affairs and vice dean for undergraduate education for the School of Arts and Sciences, who also led the steering committee on the study.
According to Berger, the team commented in an exit interview Wednesday morning that "Johns Hopkins [was an] undisputed exemplar institution that was offering ex cellence in undergraduate education." The team was especially impressed with the "focus of students and how many are doing impressive research," which they marked as a distinctive feature of the Hopkins experience and should highlight the point. They also commended the faculty for the attention given to students doing research.
In regard to the self-study, the team believed the steering committee's goals and strategies to be "ambitious but appropriate" and were glad to see that progress was being made. The team also commented that the report was, "candid, realistic, comprehensive and reflected well the issues that identified students."
While the team applauded the increasing partnerships Hopkins has made within the community, it also pinpointed certain issues that they believed might want to be looked into as improvement.
One of the team's greatest concerns was that while Hopkins has greatly increased the diversity of its student body, faculty diversity was not very apparent. Another concern revolved around the process of teaching evaluations, an issue where they believed many faculty and students treated with cynicism.
Other issues that came up during the visit were questions of academic integrity needing to addressed more aggressively as well as the issue of competition among students which undercut many opportunities for collaboration.
They also believed the course schedule needed a serious look. "They thought it had difficult compatibility with other [Hopkins] schools so that students could not take full opportunity to utilize all the schools. There was also an issue with the pedagogy of certain classes, and whether it is most appropriate."
In regards to student life, they urged more conversation with students on what should be done on campus, as well as securing funds for more programming. They also recommended consolidation of offices and departments in order to save on costs.
As for disagreements between the group's assessment and the report, the team said they did not understand the report's concern regarding a lack of sense of community with Hopkins, and whether the extension of freshmen housing which is being considered is worth the money.
"Hopkins is concerned with the issue from both qualitative and quantitative surveys that we have conducted in years past," Berger said. "Since many of the students in the focus groups expressed a sense of community within student organizations, the group struggled with the need for an overall sense of the community."
Implementations of certain programs are already taking place, such as new teacher evaluations and student focus groups regarding academic integrity.
"It's very hard to get arms around school in two days, and impressions given from faculty and students was very favorable and sharp," Berger said.
The official report should come out within a month, then there will be a meeting with the Middle States commission regarding the official reaccredidation.
