SUMMARY FORM

PREPARED FOR THE COMPLIANCE CERTIFICATION REVIEW

 

 

Name of Institution:� North Carolina State University

 

Accreditation Liaison:

Karen Helm

Director

University Planning and Analysis

(919) 515-6648

karen_helm@ncsu.edu

 

Technical Support person for the Compliance Certification:

Jan Henderson

Assistant to the Director

Institutional Strategy and Analysis

(919) 515-6431

jan_henderson@ncsu.edu

 

 

History and Characteristics

 

NC State University, founded in 1887, is the largest and has a unique mission among the 16 University of North Carolina system institutions:� to serve as the only land-grant, research-extensive university.� On-campus and distance education enrollment sum to nearly 30,000 students.� This includes roughly 20,000 undergraduates and 6,000 graduate students enrolled in one of NC State�s 266 degree programs, and an additional 3,600 lifelong education students taking courses outside of a degree program.� Undergraduate admissions is selective; about 60% of applicants are admitted.� The majority of undergraduates (87%) are North Carolina residents.�

 

Annual research expenditures are about $500 million; a relatively large proportion is funded by industry and government.� NC State is home to more than 60 research centers, institutes, and specialized laboratories, and to the Centennial Campus, which provides a unique opportunity for partnerships among academic departments, industry, and government agencies.� Extension employees located in all 100 counties and the Cherokee Indian Reservation serve the needs of North Carolinians across the state.

 

To benchmark its accomplishments, NC State compares itself to 15 peer universities that are similar in mission, size, and programs.� For many purposes, the most comparable peers include Virginia Tech, Purdue University, Georgia Tech, Iowa State, Texas A&M, and the University of California at Davis.

 

Educational Programs

 

1.�� Level of offerings (Check all that apply)

 

��Diploma or certificate program(s) requiring less than one year beyond grade 12

��Diploma or certificate program(s) of at least two but fewer than four years of work beyond grade 12

��Associate degree program(s) requiring a minimum of 60 semester hours or the equivalent designed for transfer to a baccalaureate institution

�    Associate degree program(s) requiring a minimum of 60 semester hours or the equivalent not designed for transfer

�    �Four or five-year baccalaureate degree program(s) requiring a minimum of 120 semester hours or the equivalent

�    Professional degree program(s)

�    Master's degree program(s)

�    Work beyond the master's level but not at the doctoral level (such as Specialist in Education)

�    Doctoral degree program(s)

��Other (Specify)      

 

Types of Undergraduate Programs (Check all that apply)�����������

 

��Occupational certificate or diploma program(s)

�       Occupational degree program(s)

�       Two-year programs designed for transfer to a baccalaureate institution

�       Liberal Arts and General

�       Teacher Preparatory

�       Professional

���� ��Other (Specify)      

�

Degrees currently offered and the majors or concentrations within those degrees.

 

 

Locations and Distance Education

 

NC State offers three programs in off-campus locations where instruction is delivered in a traditional classroom.

 

Off-Campus, On-Site Program Locations

North Carolina State University

Site-Based DE Programs

Country

State

City

Site

 

 

 

 

 

BSE Mechatronics

 

 

 

 

(complete degree)

USA

NC

Asheville

UNC-Asheville

 

 

 

 

 

 

Master of School Administration

 

 

 

 

(complete degree)

 

 

 

 

Northern Cohort

USA

NC

Henderson

So.Vance H.S.

Southern Cohort

USA

 

Benson

W.Johnston H.S.

Wake Cohort

USA

NC

Raleigh

Webster Center

 

 

 

 

 

EdD Adult & Community College Education

 

 

 

 

(complete degree)

USA

NC

Asheville

UNC-Asheville

 

NC State also offers 8 degree programs and 1 certificate program through electronic means (Internet, video, or CD-ROM)

 

Engineering Online

 

Natural Resources

 

Education

 

Textiles Online Program

 

Certificate Program

 

Typically students engage in electronically delivered learning in their homes or

places of business, which are located throughout North Carolina, the United

States, and other countries.� They communicate with their instructors, advisors,

departments, and other students via electronic means.� They have full access

to the university�s services through web-based computing accounts.

 

Accreditation

 

The following agencies accredit professional programs at NC State University.�

 

ABET, Inc. (Engineering Accreditation Commission and Computing Accreditation Commission (2000)

American Chemical Society (2002)

American Psychological Association (2002)

American Veterinary Medical Association (2000)

Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (2000)

Council for Accreditation of Counseling & Related Educational Programs (1998)

Computing Sciences Accreditation Board (1999)

Council on Social Work Education (2003)

Human Factors in Ergonomics Society (1997)

Landscape Architectural Accreditation Board (1999)

National Architectural Accrediting Board (2000)

National Association for Schools of Art and Design (2001)

National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (2000)

National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (2002)

National Recreation and Park Association (2002)

Society of American Foresters (1994)

Society of Wood Science and Technology (1994)

 

NC State University relies on the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) for institutional accreditation and as a gateway to federal funds.�

 

None of these agencies has applied sanctions or taken negative actions during the two years previous to this Compliance Certification.�

 

Relationship to the U.S. Department of Education

NC State University complies with all federal rules and regulations governing the administration of Title IV federal financial aid programs.  The U.S. Department of Education has applied no limitations, suspensions, or terminations in regard to these programs.� The university has been approved to participate in all federal aid programs and was recertified as required without exception or delay.  The university submits all federal financial aid reports in a timely fashion, receives annual allocations of Title IV Campus-Based Aid funds from the U.S. Department of Education, and is audited as required to assure administrative responsibility and appropriate cash management capabilities.  No reimbursement has been required.

 

Quality Enhancement Plan

 

NC State University�s Quality Enhancement Plan�Learning in a Technology-Rich Environment (LITRE)�focuses on facilitating student learning and creating an innovative learning environment with technology.� When completed, the LITRE plan will consist of initiatives intended to strengthen student learning through an enriched learning environment.� The plan will also establish an ongoing, empirical inquiry into the effects of technology on student learning.� More specifically, the plan will:

 

 

 

 

Successful implementation of the LITRE plan is important to the continuing quality of NC State�s educational programs, which rely heavily on various forms of technology.� Since the early 1990s, the university�s plans have included goals for exploiting technology to enrich academic programs and to extend its reach.� For example, in the university�s 1995 strategic plan was a goal "to use technologies to improve teaching and learning, to disseminate knowledge, and to improve access to university resources."� The 1996 implementation plan directed establishment of a learning technology center (now the Learning Technology Service or LTS), better support for media production across campus (now supplied by LTS, the Libraries, and some colleges), and a campus-wide symposium to highlight and share faculty and student experiences using educational technology (now the annual Exposition of Educational and Instructional Technologies).

 

By the 1999-2001 planning cycle, teaching and learning with technology had become a high priority at the university.� The provost and nearly every college included in its plan one or more initiatives focused on using technology more effectively to improve student learning and teaching.� Among these initiatives was the creation of a vice provost for Distance Education and Learning Technology Applications (DELTA).

 

During this period, an analysis of trends in student survey results clearly indicated student satisfaction with access to technology available at NC State University and with the level of computing skill they developed here.� Surveys of alumni indicated their satisfaction with the technology skills they had developed here.� However, these surveys also identified a weakness in training and support to use technology for their own learning.� These results suggested that the university had both strengths to build upon and opportunities for improvement, and administrators responsible for technology in learning and teaching began to respond.�

 

In 2001, when NC State University implemented a $468 million renovation and construction program, the Facilities Division developed new standards for classroom technology.� This provided NC State with an unusual opportunity to develop a long-range plan for enriching the physical learning environment.

 

In this context the university administration determined that learning and teaching with technology had become a strategically important issue requiring focused, university-wide planning.� The Quality Enhancement Plan provided an appropriate vehicle to integrate and enhance the planning and evaluation that had been developing for more a decade.

 

An essential part of the plan will be a rigorous assessment of the impact of LITRE projects on student learning and a commitment to using the results to drive decisions about future development.� The current economic climate makes it especially important to use limited resources based on real evidence of student learning.� A conservative estimate indicates that the university currently spends more than $30 million annually on educational technology.� Our faculty are proliferating new tools for and modes of teaching with technology.� Our new students arrive on campus with greater skills and expect technological sophistication, and they are taking more online classes and other technology-mediated courses, and our distance education is the fastest growing segment of our enrollment.� Therefore, it is imperative that we base our decisions about allocating these limited resources on evidence of learning, and not on opinion.

 

We expect LITRE projects to provide useful strategies for improving student learning, both for NC State University and for other institutions.� LITRE projects might also enhance the university�s position among other research-extensive universities and help us attract high performing students and faculty, leverage research dollars, and extend our reach across North Carolina. For these many reasons, LITRE addresses a strategic issue facing NC State.�

Reports Prepared for SACS