INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMPLETING THE SELF-STUDY REPORT
2015 - 2016
Presented below are instructions for completing each section of the Self-Study Report. This includes
instructions for sections to be completed by the unit under review as well as definitions of self-study data that
is supplied by Institutional Planning and Assessment (IPA). When completing the self-study document, please
be sure to review all supplied data to ensure its accuracy. If you have any questions about the self-study, please
contact Tanya Robertson-Frey, research analyst with IPA: 966-1824, tanya.robertson-frey@usaska.ca.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY UNIT UNDER REVIEW
Executive Summary: Provide a summary of the unit under review and the main points of the self-study report.
Please highlight any perceived strengths or areas for improvement of the unit under review.
1. UNIT DESCRIPTION
INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY UNIT UNDER REVIEW
Leadership: include title, name and contact information of the unit leader and any members of the executive
team, as applicable.
Unit Narrative: Provide a brief history of the unit under review. Describe different program options (e.g.,
thesis/non-thesis/course-based); professional accreditation; special features such as external collaborations in
delivery; and interdisciplinary approaches.
Future Trends: Provide commentary on your expectations of how the discipline or field of study might evolve,
locally, nationally or internationally, over the next 5 to 10 years. Comment on how your program is or will be
positioned to adjust to these anticipated changes.
Reputation: Indicate the extent to which the unit under review enhances the national and/or international
reputation of the University of Saskatchewan.
Strengths: Identify the particular strengths of the unit under review. For example, this unit is known for its
strength in areas A, B and C within the discipline. Provide evidence of these strengths.
Areas for Improvement: Identify any areas for improvement within the unit under review, describing the
specific issue(s) and plans for addressing it.
Strategic Plan Highlights: List the top three strategic objectives for the unit under review; use information from
the unit’s last Integrated Plan where applicable.
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Alignment with U of S Strategic Priorities: Provide a commentary on how your strategic plan is aligned with
the strategic priorities in the current integrated plan at the University of Saskatchewan.
2. OBJECTIVES AND CURRICULUM
INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY UNIT UNDER REVIEW
Program Name: Identify each of the programs delivered by the academic unit.
Date Established: The year in which the program was first offered.
Objectives: State the educational objectives of the program. These should be high-level objectives rather than
course goals. State the intended learning outcomes and experiences, which may include discipline specific
and/or professional skills. Describe how the objectives are achieved - e.g., through course work, teaching and
research seminars, laboratory and technical training, internship and practica, major research papers and thesis.
For example: “Students will develop critical thinking and analytical skills through the conception, planning and
completion of an independent research project in the field under the guidance of their academic supervisor”.
Areas of Specialization: Identify any area of distinctive strength, which might be associated with a
concentration of faculty working in a particular field. Optional for undergraduate and masters degrees;
doctoral degrees should identify one or more fields of specialization.
Special/Innovative Features: Briefly describe how innovation and/or creativity influence program design,
program degree delivery, or inclusion of unique experiential learning opportunities. State whether the program
has areas of strength, or is unique nationally or internationally, in a manner that the program wishes to
advertise within its discipline. If applicable, describe access to specialized equipment.
Admissions Standards: List the admission requirements pertaining to academic standing, English language
proficiency, second language requirements, mandatory course requirements and other requirements, if any.
Please note any graduate degree admission requirements that exceed the minimums set by CGSR, and/or
incorporate different evaluation mechanisms outside of the CGSR standards. This includes, for example, higher
English proficiency test scores for international students, or the need to participate in a face-to-face interview,
or the requirement for qualifying examinations.
Courses Offered: For each of the courses listed in the first column, indicate whether it has been offered in any
given year of the review period (yes/no). Please attach any available course syllabi.
Course Evaluation: Describe evaluation mechanism(s) in place to regularly assess your program courses for
currency of materials and content, and for appropriate instructional methods.
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3. STUDENT PROFILE AND OUTCOMES
INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY INSTITUTIONAL PLANNING AND ASSESMENT
Number of Applicants, Accepted and Registered Students: The student cohort in this section has been
restricted to one application per academic reporting year 1, this was accomplished using the primary application
definition. Once the primary application is determined, we look to see if they were accepted into the program.
If accepted, we then determine if they have registered in at least one class for the corresponding academic
reporting year. This constitutes a registered count.
Student Headcount by Program: When counting students over an academic reporting year, we make sure to
only count each individual student once. A student, therefore, is represented as being in the most recent
program/department within that academic reporting year. A person is considered a student if they have at
least one active registration record within the academic reporting year based on data in SiRIUS as of the end of
each session (spring and summer or fall and winter).
Geographic Origins of New Admissions: Origin is based on high-school records, where they exist, and
domestic/international student status. There is currently no other institutional definition or data that supports
student origin. If an origin is unknown it means that the student either was international and now attained
citizenship, or was admitted to CGSR as a domestic student and no high-school information was provided to
SESD.
Aboriginal Status of All Students: Aboriginal status follows the same criteria as “Student Headcount by
Program”, except we restrict to students who have self-identified as having aboriginal ancestry.
Average Number of Months to Completion by Program (based on convocation year): Using the continuous
program definition, a student is credited four months for each term they are registered in. Then the sum of
these terms is the months to completion for each student/program combination.
Number of Students Completed by Program (based on convocation year): If a student was awarded a
qualification at the graduate level, they are included in this data.
Student Incompletes/Withdrawals:
Incompletes: Using the continuous program definition, a student is credited four months for each term they
are registered in. The academic reporting year determines if a student has been in their program for more than
60 months. If a student receives a qualification in the same academic reporting year, they are removed from
the count for that year.
1
Academic reporting year is a twelve month time period (May 1 to April 30) that is equivalent to the University of
Saskatchewan’s fiscal year. An academic reporting year consists of the spring/summer session, fall term and winter term.
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Withdrawals: If a student has no registration activity in an academic reporting year and did not receive a
qualification they are considered withdrawn and will be counted in that year.
Student Awards, Scholarships and Other External Rewards: This data is sourced from the student financial aid
process. Student financial aid joins student data with associated scholarship and employment data from the U
of S financial systems. There are a number of additional processes which serve to categorize the financial aid
data to enable higher level aggregation of the earnings. This section divides the student financial aid data into 3
custom categories which build upon the standard financial aid categorization. The rules for the 3 custom
categories are as follows:
 TRI-AGENCY – Includes student aid marked as tri-agency and where the fund description contains CGS
or PGS.
 DEANS SCHOLARSHIP – Based on student aid data where the fund is ‘301310’ (Dean's Scholarship
Awards - Grad St).
 OTHER – Based on student aid data that has been categorized as ‘Research Assistants’,
‘Scholarships/Bursaries/Prizes’ or ‘Teaching Assistants’.
INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY UNIT UNDER REVIEW
Additional Comments - Number of New Students: Please provide any pertinent comments regarding the past
and present numbers of students, and/or changes over the review period.
Additional Comments - Student Recruitment Plans: Comment on whether the unit under review has met its
recruitment targets during the review period. Provide comments on the intentions to maintain, increase or
reduce recruitment targets, and provide a rationale for the planned change.
Additional Comments - Program Completion: Review student responses from the Current Student and Alumni
surveys. Provide observations, comments and discuss any trends or challenges with respect to student
completions and time-to-completion, and comment on the student and alumni feedback on factors affecting
completion and time to completion.
Additional Comments - Incompletes/Withdrawals: Provide your interpretation of the data, and provide
program specific observations (optional) on student incompletes and withdrawals. Discuss any trends or
challenges with respect to student withdrawals or incompletes.
Additional Comments - Student Awards/Scholarships: Review student responses from the Current Student
survey and provide your commentary about student funding and student satisfaction with funding.
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4. FACULTY PROFILE
INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY INSTITUTIONAL PLANNING AND ASSESMENT
Faculty List: This follows our standard definition of faculty which is based on active employees who are part of
the in-scope or out-of-scope faculty association.
Average Number of Classes Taught per Faculty: The starting point for this metric is the list of faculty from
section 4.1. For each faculty member we compute the number of classes where the faculty member was the
primary instructor. This metric is then used to calculate an average.
Average Number of Graduate Students Supervised per Faculty: The starting point for this metric is the list of
faculty from section 4.1. For each faculty member we compute the number of graduate students where the
faculty was a supervisor or co-supervisor during the academic reporting year. This metric is then used to
calculate an average.
INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY UNIT UNDER REVIEW
Faculty List: The table provides a listing of all faculty in the unit under review, including the following
attributes:
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•
•
•
•
List of faculty for the most recent year under review
Names of all tenured, tenure-track or without term faculty
Rank, in order of: professors, associate professors, assistant professors, emeritus, adjunct, other
(identify status)
Status, for example, less than 1 FTE appointments; joint appointments with other units (excludes faculty
on paid or unpaid leaves)
Faculty specialization
Teaching Assignments: For each faculty member listed in the Faculty table, please identify the classes taught in
each of the years during the period under review. Report course # for each faculty listed in the appropriate
year column. Where a faculty member is on leave for a complete year, note O/L.
Additional Comments – Faculty Profile: Please provide any pertinent comments regarding the faculty list and
teaching assignments.
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5. RESEARCH ACTIVITY
INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY INSTITUTIONAL PLANNING AND ASSESMENT
Research Funding Attributed to SENS from Internal and External Sources: This follows our standard definition
of research funding. It is a sum of research projects awarded during each fiscal year. Research projects marked
as transfer out or continuous research are excluded. For this case, the data is further restricted to research
projects which are attributed to SENS in the University of Saskatchewan’s research administration system
(UnivRS).
Funding by Researcher Attributed to SENS*: This follows the same definition as above but is broken out by
faculty members who have research projects attributed to SENS.
SENS Faculty Research Funding*: This is a combination of the data from section 4.1 (faculty) and section 5.1
(research funding attribute to SENS). For each faculty member we identify and sum all research projects (that
meet the basic criteria of 5.1) where they are the primary investigator. However, unlike section 5.1, we do not
restrict to research projects attributed to SENS in UnivRS.
* Please note that cells containing a “0” indicate no research funding awarded while a blank space indicates
that the person was not a SENS faculty member in that year.
INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY UNIT UNDER REVIEW
Additional Comments – Internal and External Funding: Provide an interpretation of the statistical information
shown in the research funding tables, and make any other pertinent observations.
Faculty Knowledge Translation: Aggregate information is required for the table that measures the total faculty
output in terms of knowledge translation as evidenced by awards, research grants and scholarly or artistic
outcomes, such as books, articles, conference presentations, or exhibitions. Of relevance are the number of
items as listed under activity/description, and not a count of the number of faculty contributors. For example,
if two faculty members published one book each in the first year under review, and a third faculty member had
a book manuscript accepted that same year, you would note “3” in Books accepted, peer reviewed for YR1.
Each knowledge translation item, activity, or event should only be counted once. In other words, a book is
counted as either accepted, or published, for the period under review.
Additional Comments – Knowledge Translation: Please provide any pertinent comments regarding the
Knowledge Translation table.
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6. ADMINISTRATION
INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY INSTITUTIONAL PLANNING AND ASSESMENT
List of Staff: A list of specific staff members and their corresponding job description and FTE.
INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY UNIT UNDER REVIEW
Additional Comments – Staff Profile: Please provide any pertinent comments regarding the staff list.
Innovation in Policies and Procedures: Comment on any changes made to program policies and/or procedures
during the period under review to better serve the needs of the students or faculty, improve the program and
affect the program outcomes.
7. PHYSICAL RESOURCES
INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY UNIT UNDER REVIEW
Physical Space: Describe the physical space in which students pursue their program of study/research. Where
applicable, include descriptions of student offices, study carrels, study/reading rooms, rooms with computer
facilities, laboratory space and other teaching, research, or study space.
Equipment: Describe any instructional equipment used in the delivery of courses/seminars (e.g. video
projectors, data projectors, other computer assisted instructional equipment). Also describe any major
research equipment accessible to students in the unit under review and any plans to update the equipment
over the next five years.
Computer Resources: Outline facilities available to students in the unit under review (e.g., desktop computers,
laptops, scanners, printers, etc.) and access to open computer areas.
Library Resources: Evaluate the following as they relate to library resources:
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•
•
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existing resources available for use in the program
pertinent resources added within the last 5 years
pertinent new resources anticipated in the next 5 years
services available to the program
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