Historical Background

In 1994, the UNM Faculty Senate decided to include undergraduate programs in the APR process, which previously solely focused on the evaluation of productivity and viability of graduate education. In 2002, the initiative to include undergraduate programs were reinforced by the Provost, resulting in changes to the APR guidelines. In 2013, the criteria used for UNM’s APR process were updated to align with the new accreditation criteria adopted by the Higher Learning Commission, and moved APR from a ten to a seven-year review cycle.

In 2015, the action plan process was revised to align with the APR criteria. In addition, updates were made to the overall process based upon recommendations from an internal audit of the Academic Program Review process. In the spirit of continuous improvement, the policies, principles, and guidelines of the APR process will continue to be updated as necessary to reflect current practices and so that the APR process aligns with other university initiatives. The APR Office reviews and evaluates its process, procedures, guidelines, and resources annually, which are vetted by the APR task force. The task force consists of representatives from faculty, staff, and administrators throughout the university.

In 2018, the Provost Office deemed it necessary to more closely align APRs with institutional demographic reporting needs. Several APR criteria were edited to emphasize the need for metrics to be provided with demographics of student and faculty in mind. These edits were incorporated into the 8th Edition of the APR Manual.