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AA: Business Administration , BA: Bachelor of Arts in Accounting , BA: Business Administration , DBA: Doctor of Business Administration , MA: Master of Accountancy , MBA: Master of Business Administration
Basis for the decision/program commentsCriterion 1.1The University Academic leaders and the DBA program leadership team under Dr Mantz have provided strong and forward looking leadership to this new program. The team found many examples where this leadership team has encouraged and led changes during the early years of the DBA program to ensure a culture of quality and positive change. These included the increased emphasis on scholarship and research, the repositioning of the comprehensive exams and making changes to the two residencies to provide greater clarity of expectations to the students.This strong, positive leadership has resulted in the faculty embracing the cultural changes, including substantially more rigorous scholarship expectations.Categories: Approach, Deployment, Results, ImprovementsVerified: This Strength was verified on site.Standard 3: Student and Stakeholder FocusThe DBA students at Keiser University benefit from invaluable support provided by the faculty and other university departments (including the Writing Center, Instructional Design, Library Services, Student Services, etc.). The top-to-bottom "Student First" motto of Keiser University is apparent in speaking with all stakeholder groups.Categories: Approach, Deployment, Results, ImprovementsVerified: This Strength was verified on site.Criterion 3.5Keiser University appears to have a strong commitment to establishing and maintaining relationships with students. This is evident from the University's "student-first" approach to all activities including recruitment, advising, instructional technology and design, library services, student services, career services, teaching, academic and technology support, etc. This was very evident in every conversation that the visiting team had with students, leadership, faculty, administrators and support services.Categories: Approach, Deployment, Results, ImprovementsVerified: This Strength was verified on site.Criterion 3.6The University and DBA program have implemented numerous formal and informal opportunities to receive input, including grievances, from stakeholders. Students and faculty members reported being aware of processes to express complaints or concerns. All stakeholders were aware of the policies at the University and felt confident they could report concerns without repercussion or retaliation.Categories: Approach, Deployment, Results, ImprovementsVerified: This Strength was verified on site.Criterion 4.4The business unit described specific improvements it has made to its programs based on information obtained from its learning outcomes assessment results. Notably, the department made a change from utilizing textbooks to utilizing more rigorous peer-reviewed journal material in courses. The department clearly outlined other examples of program improvements resulting from assessment.Categories: Approach, Deployment, Results, ImprovementsVerified: This Strength was verified on site.Criterion 5.6Faculty participate in 360-degree evaluation processes including self, peer, supervisor, and student evaluations. Additionally, faculty are evaluated in the areas of internal and external community service, scholarship, and professional development. All of these methods are based on point-systems, which determine the level of annual salary increases. Faculty expressed a high level of satisfaction with the evaluation process. Categories: Approach, Deployment, Results, ImprovementsVerified: This Strength was verified on site.Criterion 6.1.4The curriculum design for the DBA program is well designed and includes a general core, specializations, research core, and dissertation. There is evidence of active monitoring of the curriculum, and of adjusting the timing and placement of courses, general exams, and residencies as necessary to fine tune and improve the program.Categories: DeploymentVerified: This Strength was verified on site.Criterion 6.2.1This area is a major strength and differentiator for Keiser. They consciously live out the dedication to their value of "students first." The Graduate Online Writing Studio, personal phone calls from faculty to students, and support offices employing both Latin and English speaking personnel are examples of student services that emphasize providing motivated students with the help they need to succeed. DBA students were universal in their praise of the services, the personal help they receive from professors and program administrators,and of the University commitment to their success. Figure 6.9 summarizes some of this informationCategories: Deployment, ResultsVerified: This Strength was verified on site.Opportunities for Improvement (OFI) (11)Organizational ChallengesGiven the ever changing demands of the labor market that Keiser serves that is mentioned above, there is an opportunity to expand and improve the utilization of the Advisory Board. The Board tends to meet 1-3 times a year at dinner meetings, but the members did not indicate that they were utilized to discuss specific curricular, market and/or enrollment issues. They expressed the desire/willingness to be more involved, specifically in mentoring DBA students. Categories: Approach, Deployment, Results, ImprovementsVerified: This OFI was verified on site.Criterion 1.2An opportunity for improvement exists by developing specific responses to this social responsibility criteria for individual programs, specifically the DBA. This would be a way of recognizing that the issues and challenges of the DBA student population will probably be different than other groups. The result could be a more intentional approach to reaching these ethical/social responsibility opportunities and issues for specific groups like the DBA program.Categories: Approach, DeploymentVerified: This OFI was verified on site.Standard 2: Strategic PlanningAlthough there are short and longer term objectives for the program, there is an opportunity to improve the operational effectiveness of these by insuring that all of the objectives are time specific, mearsurable, and have action plans and responsibility attached to them. Adding these elements would add focus and accountability, and would assist leadership in staying focused during the crucial rollout and reputation-establishing period of early program life.Categories: Approach, DeploymentVerified: This OFI was verified on site.Standard 3: Student and Stakeholder FocusThe age of the program limits year-to-year data available. Additionally, the limited number of graduates limits the sample size for data collection. However, despite the limited data, it is apparent that assessment results relating to student and stakeholder focus are being used for continuous quality improvements in the program.Categories: Approach, Deployment, Results, ImprovementsVerified: This OFI was verified on site.Criterion 3.2The low response rate on many of the data points make analysis difficult. Specifically, the low response rate on the employer assessment providing 100% positive results does not give much information for possible improvement areas. Additionally, the questions asked of employers may be inappropriate for that stakeholder group. Finally, the job placement data may be misleading as a result of the small number of program graduates and not stating the of those graduates that were employed while in the program. The opportunity for improvement in this area requires the passage of time so more statistical information is available.Categories: Approach, Deployment, Results, ImprovementsVerified: This OFI was verified on site.Criterion 3.4Although the DBA program at Keiser University has a plan to address requirements stated by each major stakeholder group there may be an opportunity to improve this plan by including a timeline for completion of each activity, responsible parties for each requirement, and action items necessary for addressing each requirement.Categories: Approach, Deployment, Results, ImprovementsVerified: This OFI was verified on site.Criterion 3.7Although standards for determining stakeholder satisfaction are clearly listed, an opportunity exists to "close the loop" in this area by developing a specific plan for addressing results and implementing proposed changes. This is currently not readily apparent. Categories: Approach, Deployment, Results, ImprovementsVerified: This OFI was verified on site.Criterion 4.2There is an opportunity for improvement as the program develops more students to the dissertation and graduation stages of matriculation. Currently, despite the self study reporting three years of data being included, many of the measurements (dissertation proposal, dissertation, graduation exam, employer assessment) only contained two data points as a result of the young age of the program. Additionally, with very few graduates at this point, including the "n" for the measurements would be beneficial in understanding data impact. This is a problem for all sections of the self-study requiring longitudinal data as a basis for program improvement. It is just too early to determine if the data is yielding valid, useful and reliable information on which to base program improvements.Categories: Approach, Deployment, Results, ImprovementsVerified: This OFI was verified on site.While internal stake holders have access to measures of outcomes through the Keiser Assessment Portal, the same information is not available to the public (on the website for example). Categories: Approach, Deployment, Results, ImprovementsVerified: This OFI was verified on site.Criterion 5.3Currently dissertation chair and member responsibilities are monitored by a point system. This is currently not recognized in the teaching load, but results in financial remuneration.This is not a current problem, but is a potential train wreck lurking around the bend. An opportunity for improvement exists to develop a plan to better project future workloads including dissertation committees. Given the rapid growth in DBA enrollment, this situation should be monitored closely. Going forward, an improvement may be to develop a model that will project what the capacity of the DBA and related faculty is in terms of supporting students during the dissertation process. At some point in the not too distant future, you will reach the capacity of your current faculty to increase the number of committees they chair and ones where they are committee members. It will be prudent to anticipate rather than react to this problem, and to develop a plan that will allow you to have adequate dissertation committee coverage while still providing faculty time to engage in scholarship and other activities that will "keep students first."Categories: Approach, Deployment, Results, ImprovementsVerified: This OFI was verified on site.Criterion 6.1.4While the vast majority of students enter the program with an MBA or other business related degree, there is an opportunity to develop better ways to determine what other students need as prerequisites (especially CPC coverage) before they enter the program. This primarily involves looking for ways to predict success/failure. Standardized tests, class prerequisites, learning tools offered by Peregrine and others and be used, and student results can be monitored over time to see what predictive information can be mined, and how this can be used to counsel students before they enter the program.Until such time as there is adequate information available on which to base decisions about admissions standards, an opportunity for improvement may be to recognize that the best course of action may be to make your criteria as clear as possible, erring on the side of protecting your desired reputation, and only admitting students that have a very high probability of successful completion.
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