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The Graduate School
  • About
  • Admissions
  • Academics
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< About

  • Background & History
  • Governance
  • Contact Us
  • Directory

MSU's plan to keep Spartans safe

Learn More

< Admissions

  • Overview
  • Apply
  • International Applicants

An MSU graduate education provides the motivation and inspiration for you to move your career forward.

View a list of graduate programs.

< Academics

  • Overview
  • Program List
  • Research Integrity
  • Theses & Dissertations
  • Policies & Procedures
  • Traveling Scholars
  • GradPlan

At MSU, there are many ways to combine areas of study into one or two degrees.

Learn about interdisciplinary study

< Funding

  • Overview
  • Emergency Fellowship Funding
  • Fellowships
  • Research Enhancement Award
  • Travel Funding
  • Assistantship Resources
  • Funding Resources

Find the financial support you need to pursue your graduate studies.

View Funding Opportunities

< Professional Development

  • Overview
  • Graduate Career Services
  • Teaching Development
  • Advising
  • Mentoring

The Graduate School provides and curates programs to help students grow as educators.

View Teaching Communities & Fellowships

< News & Events

  • News
  • Events

View upcoming workshops for graduate students.

Learn More

< Diversity & Community

  • Overview
  • Office of Well-Being
  • Student Organizations
  • Michigan Housing & Living
  • Spouse & Family Resources
  • Safety & Security

While inclusion guides all of our activities, the Graduate School provides a range of innovative programs and initiatives that focus specifically on inclusivity and community.

See our community programs
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  • Faculty & Staff
  • Research Integrity
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Strategic Program Assessment

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Strategic Program Assessment

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SPARTANS WILL|© Michigan State University|

SPAinputoutcomes (1)

Strategic Program Assessment (SPA) is MSU’s process for reviewing graduate programs, including graduate certificates. 

Engaging in the SPA process gives departments and colleges a chance to take a step back and think broadly about its programs, where they are working, and where they can be improved.

The Graduate School will:

  • conduct a high-level review and provide feedback.
  • identify trends across campus and identify potential areas where we need to provide more guidance and support through mechanisms such as adopting MSU wide policies or through our Graduate Handbook update process. 

Note: The Graduate School will not use SPA to decide which programs are terminated or which programs get resources.

We recognize that completing your self-study will require work. However, we have tried to make SPA a useful process that produces a useful result. Anecdotally, those who put in the most effort and engage the unit broadly get the most out of SPA.

Timeline

  • Prior Spring
    • Confirm program lineup
  • Prior Summer
    • Initial Communication
    • Data packets generated
  • Fall Semester
    • August: kickoff meeting
    • September: develop self-study plan
    • October: grad School and program data review
    • December: progress reports due
  • Spring Semester
    • January & February: complete data collection
    • Spring: complete report writing & stakeholder feedback collection
    • April: second progress report due
  • Fall Semester (2nd Year)
    • October: Complete self-study reports & submit drafts to GAADs
    • November: GAAD feedback is collected, incorporated into final self-study, and re-submitted to GAADs
    • Reports reviewed & approved by chairs and GAADs, then routed to the Graduate School
  • Spring Semester (2nd Year)
    • Grad School review of all self-study reports
    • Grad School meeting with GAADs
    • Meeting scheduled to discuss unit and Grad School feedback

Process

Each graduate program is scheduled to go through SPA on a regular basis, typically every 7 years. 

Some programs might go through this more frequently to align with an external accreditation process that has a shorter cycle. These timings were initially set by each College’s Graduate Assistant/Associate Dean (GAAD).

View the SPA Schedule
  • Prior Year's Spring Semester
    • College GAADs confirm which of their programs will go through SPA in the next academic year. A schedule has been established, but some variation might arise due to extenuating circumstances.
  • Prior Year's Summer Semester
    • The Graduate School will send initial communications to the Chair, Graduate Program Director (GPD) and GAAD for each program going through SPA; if possible, these will go out in spring semester.
    • The GAADs will fill out a form confirming some basic information and expectations for each program going through SPA. This information will be shared with the GPD and the Graduate School.
    • The Graduate School will create a Teams site to house all the relevant SPA information. You will be added to this Teams site.
    • The Graduate School, in collaboration with Institutional Research, will generate data packets that will be given to each program. This data will include admissions, enrollment, graduation, and time to completion data. When available, we will also include student survey and placement data.
  • Fall Semester
    • In August, the Graduate School will host a virtual kickoff meeting that will be recorded providing basic instructions and advice to all programs going through SPA. The recording will be made available on the Teams site.
    • In September, programs will develop a plan for completing their self-study and submit this plan in early October, and they will review their data. These will be facilitated by early September workshops.
    • In October, the Graduate School will meet with programs to review their data and identify any patterns that merit further investigation.
    • Programs should identify any additional data they need to complete their self-study.
    • In December, programs will submit an initial progress report.
  • Spring Semester
    • In January and February, programs will complete data collection.
    • Throughout spring semester, programs will complete the bulk of the report writing including sharing with stakeholders to gather feedback.
    • Programs will submit their second progress report in April by which time the report should be close to complete.
  • Fall Semester (Second Year)
    • Programs will complete their self-study reports
    • Programs will submit their draft self-study reports to their GAADs by the end of October.
    • GAADs will provide feedback to the programs which will be incorporated into the final self-study during November.
    • Programs will submit their final self-study reports incorporating GAAD feedback by the end of November.
    • These reports will be reviewed and approved by Chairs (or equivalent) and GAADs before being routed to the Graduate School.
  • Spring Semester (Second Year)
    • The Graduate School will review of all the submitted self-study reports using the published rubric.
    • The Graduate School will meet with GAADs to discuss each program that went through SPA from the given college in that cycle.
    • Meetings will then be scheduled to discuss college and Graduate School feedback.