Self-Study Design - Howard University, Graduate School

esearch is an integral part of the academic experience for undergraduate, graduate, and
professional school students. Because of Howard’s classification by the Carnegie Foundation for
the Advancement of Teaching and its aspirations for the future as described above, it is a
propitious time for the University to conduct a thorough and extensive assessment of its research
enterprise.
The Self-Study will be grounded within the broad scope of Howard University’s historic role in
American higher education, assess how it compares with its peer institutions, and examine its
aspirations as a major, national research university. Further, the study will evaluate the context of
institutional mission, goals, and aspirations. Finally, the process will be open and transparent and
use a variety of face-to-face and electronic means to elicit participation and involvement from all
segments of the university community at every phase of work.
With respect to the University’s recent history, Howard conducts this Self-Study approximately
20 years after the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching classified Howard
University as a Research I university for the first time—the first for a minority-serving university
in the United States. Thus, it is timely for the university to examine all of its policies, systems,
operations, and resource allocations to determine their “goodness of fit” relative to its goals,
mission, and aspirations as a research university.
The Self-Study coincides also with the Howard University’s celebration of its 50 th anniversary of
awarding its first Ph.D. degree. Since 1958, the year when the University awarded its first Ph.D.
degree, it has made a meteoric rise as a doctoral granting institution. While it awards the Ph.D.
degree annually to a multicultural, multiracial, and international group of recipients, Howard has
become the nation’s largest on-campus producer of African-American Ph.D. recipients and the
largest producer of African-American Ph.D.s in many fields. Annual Ph.D. productivity has been
central to the University’s rise in the Carnegie classification.
On a broader scale, Howard conducts the Self-Study at a time of great change and challenge in
American higher education, which has a direct bearing on the University. For example, Howard,
like its peers, faces increased public expectations for greater accountability and documentation of
quality in an environment of increased costs and challenged financial resources. Moreover,
Howard continues to be a major player in the national imperative to strengthen access and
success for its culturally and racially diverse citizenry, while simultaneously seeking to continue
to meet greater competition from the global community for the world’s best students and
scholars. Finally, Howard, like the entire higher education community, addresses the rise of
interdisciplinary approaches and changing ways of enhancing student learning, including a
greater reliance on technology. These developments, and others, call for heightened assessments
of issues of curriculum, teaching, student learning, and all phases of university life.
Appointments of Senior Level Leadership
Steps Taken To Prepare for the Self-Study
President Swygert launched the University-Wide Self-Study in March 2007. Acting on the
recommendation of Dr. Richard A. English, Provost and Chief Academic Officer, he appointed
Dr. Orlando L. Taylor, Vice Provost for Research and Dean of the Graduate School, to chair the
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