About an Academic Audit
TBR Promotes Accountability and the Improvement of Quality through Academic Audit Processes
The Tennessee Board of Regents’ Office of Academic Affairs, under the leadership of Vice Chancellor Paula Myrick Short, has initiated the Academic Audit process for TBR institutions. Tennessee is the the only state that has conducted audits with community colleges and TBR is among the few systems internationally that has an academic audit process. Dr. Short noted that a growing number of institutions are achieving improvements in teaching and learning through academic audits. Dr. William Massy, professor emeritus at Stanford University and an authority on academic audits, assisted with the first year of implementation in the 2004-05 academic year.
What is an Academic Audit?
As noted in an article by Dr. Massy in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the objective of an academic audit is to produce tangible improvements in education quality without having to spend more money. Similar to program reviews and accreditation visits, audits include a self-study and a site visit by external peers. However, one key difference between audits and other types of reviews is that an audit looks at the key faculty activities required to produce and regularly improve the quality of teaching and learning. That is, auditors evaluate the processes that lead to education quality rather than focusing on teaching performance or assessing student learning. An audit inquires how faculty members organize their work and how they use data to make decisions. It also asks how faculty work collegially toward improvement in teaching and learning and how they use resources available to them.
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Links to Academic Audits at Higher Education Institutions
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