Academic Portfolio and Program Review (APPR)

Final APPR Summary Report Now Available

The Academic Portfolio and Program Review (APPR) committee has released its Final Summary Report, which recommends a University-wide approach to reviewing undergraduate programs and the overall academic portfolio. This report marks the conclusion of the current phase of the APPR initiative.

The Final Summary Report outlines recommendations for establishing a comprehensive undergraduate review process at Penn State. It highlights the need for consistent institutional resources and shared standards for data use, management, and curation.

The report has been shared with Renata Engel, Interim Vice President for Commonwealth Campuses, and Fotis Sotiropoulos, Executive Vice President and Provost, who served as the project’s executive sponsors. The committee also acknowledges the guidance of Tracy Langkilde, who served as Interim Provost during much of the APPR process. The report will be presented during the October Faculty Senate Plenary meeting. While the recommendations provide strategic direction, implementation details and final scope will be determined by Provost Sotiropoulos after further review.

Read the Final Summary Report.

Workstream Reports

Workstream #1 Report for Project 1— Bachelor’s and Associate’s Degree Portfolio Review is now available. Access more information about the report and supplementary materials on the APPR Report 1 page.

Workstream #2 Report—Pennsylvania Workforce Development Assessment information is available on the APPR Report 2 page.

Workstream #3 Report—University Programming and Employment Alignment Dashboard information is available on the APPR Report 3 page.

Workstream #4 Report—Background Research: University Program Review Process is available on the APPR Report 4 page.

Workstream #5 Report—Academic Portfolio Review National Alignment is available on the APPR Report 5 page.

Workstream #6 Report—Professional Master’s Degrees National Alignment is available on the APPR Report 6 page.

Structure and Roles

Academic leaders, faculty, staff, and students will be partners in the APPR effort, serving as members of the steering committee and project work teams, and through opportunities to provide guidance and input.

Role of External Consultant in APPR

Penn State is engaging with an external consultant, Hanover Research group, to offer guidance and recommendations throughout the process. Hanover will not have decision-making responsibilities. Their role will be to:

• Provide expertise and bandwidth to objectively and efficiently deliver the review processes
• Provide market data and peer benchmarking
• Support the development of measurements and metrics to assess existing (including newly started) and future programs
• Take a University-wide approach to assessing current and future offerings to maximize Penn State’s impact and mission

Work with Hanover began in October 2024, the result of an extensive RFP process that took place summer 2024. The APPR RFP Selection work team, in consultation with representatives from the Graduate Council, University Faculty Senate, and University Staff Advisory Council, recommended Hanover Research group. They are a research firm with experience in higher education research and data collection and analysis, including work on portfolio and program review projects. 

Workstreams

In October 2024, the APPR tri-chairs created a new Workstreams group to help map out priority projects, or “workstreams,” with Hanover. Each workstream, of which there will be many, is identified as a priority research project for Hanover to gather data with Penn State.

The research process is fluid: As data is collected, assessed and measured, metrics established, and reports created, information will be analyzed for immediate use and new workstreams will be launched as necessary.

The topics for the first five workstreams have been identified*:

Project 1 – Bachelor’s and Associate’s Degree Portfolio Review

• Reviews all bachelor’s and associate’s degrees across Penn State for student interest and employment alignment
• Classifies each program degree into one of the following categories:
  • High Growth
  • Emerging
  • Established
  • Low Growth
  • Insufficient Data
• Uses multiple data sources to holistically evaluate degrees
• Evaluation is done at the state and regional level (region is PA, NY, NJ, MD, DC, and DE, which conforms to current IPEDS data)
• Provides a starting point for more in-depth research questions

Deliverable: Hanover will deliver a broad portfolio overview which will include classification of each program into one of the following categories: High Growth, Emerging, Established, Low Growth, and Insufficient Data.
Timeline: Report expected before the end of the Fall semester.
Access the Workstream #1 Report and supplementary materials.

Project 2 – State Labor Assessment

• Evaluates current and likely future employment needs across the state of Pennsylvania
• Breaks down employment at the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) level and the county level (as data permits)
• Identifies likely competitors for programming
• Provides information on where employment/credential gaps are likely to exist at a level of detail useful for program planning across the Commonwealth campuses

Deliverable: Hanover will deliver a broad portfolio overview which will include classification of each program into one of the following categories: High Growth, Emerging, Established, Low Growth, and Insufficient Data.
Timeline: Report expected before the end of the Fall semester.
Access the Workstream #2 Report and supplementary materials.

Project 3 – Campus and College Programming and Employment Alignment Dashboard

• Identifies where program overlaps exist between campus and colleges
• Identified where program gaps exist based on local employment needs and opportunities.
• Provides a filterable dashboard based on Penn State’s campus and college-level program data supplemented with employment data from Hanover’s proprietary data sets.

Deliverable: Hanover will deliver a Power BI dashboard (hosted on Hanover Digital).
Timeline: Hanover will deliver the report and data supplement in approximately ten weeks once the data set is received.

Project 4 – Background Research on University Program Review Process

• Literature review of scholarly and institutional sources from the last 5–7 years to answer the research questions listed below
• Review Penn State peers and competitors using publicly available data regarding their program review process
  • What are the different approaches to program review being leveraged by peer and competitor institutions (e.g. centralized versus decentralized, internal resources versus third-party vendor support)?
  • What are the other institutions using as criteria for their own programs reviews (e.g., student conferral volume, local employment needs, national trends)?
  • How frequently are other systems reviewing their portfolios?
    

Deliverable: Hanover will deliver a narrative report with citations.

Timeline: Full report expected by April 2025; interim reports during Spring Semester.
Access the Workstream #4 Report and supplementary materials.

Project 5 – Academic Portfolio Optimization –National Alignment

• Examination of national undergraduate degree conferral volume of various programs compared to Penn State with growth projections. 
• Address the following research questions:
  • How does Penn State’s current portfolio of undergraduate programming compare to the national landscape (programs offered, conferral volume, annualized growth).​
  • Where does Penn State provide unique offerings which it can potentially leverage for growth?​
  • How do Penn State’s existing programs align with current and projected national labor needs? (as available)​
  • What is the historical alignment between Penn State’s academic programs and industry placement

Deliverable: Hanover will deliver a narrative report with citations.
Timeline: Report expected near the end of April 2025.
Access the Workstream #5 Report and supplementary materials.

Project 6 – Graduate Professional Portfolio

• Exploration of Penn State’s current professional master’s degree programs in relation to the national landscape, with a focus on programs offered, degree conferral volume, annualized growth, and online availability. It will include Penn State’s unique offerings to leverage for growth and how the current portfolio aligns with current and projected national labor needs.

Deliverable: Hanover will deliver a narrative report with citations. Student demand trends will be reported via degree conferrals and the report will include labor market with economic forecasts. The report will be organized at the 4-digit CIP level with some programs being reported at the 6-digit level (based on program definition).
Timeline: Report from Hanover expected by the end of May​

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*Disclaimer: These are high-level overviews of the initial workstreams. This is a fluid process and the APPR leadership team understands there may be questions.

Participation in the Insight Sessions is encouraged to ask questions about the workstreams and engage with the APPR team. Questions can also be emailed to appr@psu.edu.

Workstream Reports Review Process

The following graphics detail the steps in the review process each Workstream report or deliverable will undergo once Hanover Research submits them to Penn State.

APPR Work Teams, Representatives, and Structures

The APPR work teams are comprised of faculty, staff, and students who are using their expertise to support the APPR project. The work teams were formed from the close to 500 nominations/self-nominations that were submitted for the project teams in spring 2024. Read more about the APPR work teams, their team charges, and membership.

Committee and Team Membership

Faculty, staff, students, and administrators from across Penn State are participating in the APPR project. This page lists the members of the APPR groups, including the steering committee, the leads of the work teams, the project tri-chairs, executive sponsors, project support team, auditors, and former members. 

Insight Sessions

Insight Sessions are an opportunity for the APPR leadership team to provide regular updates and engage the Penn State community in the APPR project. Each session will include time for participants to ask questions and provide feedback to APPR leaders. All members of the Penn State community are invited to attend.

APPR leaders held the final Insight Session on Thursday, June 26.

All members of the Penn State community are welcome to refer to recordings of the previous sessions and continue using this website as a resource. Recordings can be accessed here.

Newsletter

Sign up for our monthly newsletter to receive updates on the APPR initiative. Read past issues here.