Rawls College of Business 2008 Report to the Provost 19
Texas Tech University
JERRY S. RAWLS
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
REPORT TO THE PROVOST
2008
June 2009
Goal 1. Academic Excellence: Become a business school of choice in Texas for students, faculty, employers, and the general public.
Objective 1.1: Students who graduate on time.
Accomplishments:
· Students admitted to an upper division major and graduating in three years or less has remained steady in the range 90%-94%, most recently 93.7%, which supports the vision of successful students.
· Both freshmen retention of 85% and a graduation rate in 6-years of 67% compare favorably with the university as a whole. However, this does not reflect the high number of transfers into the college from other Texas Tech Colleges. The Rawls College undergraduate program is becoming more of an upper division program where proportionally fewer students start as freshmen and more students transfer into the college.
· The undergraduate assessment of advising (measured with a national scale as 4.95 on a scale of 7.0) has improved over that past five years and is now near the national average of about 5.0.
· The MBA assessment of advising (5.44 on a scale of 7.0) has shown some variability over that past five years, but remains above the national average.
· The proportion of enrolled students completing sophomore classes with a passing grade has improved from about 60% in 2000-01 to 85% for Fall 2008. This is a substantial reduction in wasted resources from about 40% of the seats in 2000 to about 15% recently. Across the entire undergraduate program 91.2% of students enrolling in courses earned a C or better. The wasted resource factor for the undergraduate program was decreased to 8.8%. For the graduate program, the success rate has remained steady at 95% for those enrolling in courses and a waste factor of 5% of the resources.
· The total student head count per tenure track-faculty member has been reduced from 91.1 for Fall 1999 to 62.2 for Fall 2008. This has mostly occurred by transferring out the unsuccessful lower division students who were never going to graduate. Presumably, they transferred to programs where they could receive a Texas Tech degree. Further reductions in this ratio will be necessary, such that we compare favorably with our comparison group for AACSB accreditation purposes.
· The success of students is indicated by undergraduates getting a job or entering graduate school. Placement within 90 days of graduation, which is improved from about 50% six years ago to about 71.1% for Spring 2008 and 61.4% for Fall 2008. Note that these are down from the prior year due to the economy. Those undergraduates going on to graduate school improved from about 10% for Spring 2000 to 18.1% for Spring 2007 and 19.1% for Fall 2008. Note that these are up due likely to the economy. The total placement of students has improved from about 60% to the 89.2% for Spring 2008 and 80.5% for Fall 2008. The total placement success of the students is down about 4% from the prior year.
· The total degrees have remained fairly stable for the past six years with about 1,300 total degrees. There has been a substantial decline in the total number of students from about 5,400 in Fall 1999 to about 4,200 for Fall 2008. (Note that there are about 200 dual degree program students in the MBA program who are listed with other colleges in University counts, such as the College of Architecture or Law School.) Since we have fewer total students with about the same number of degrees, this indicates that proportionally more students are successful in completing their degree programs. In combination with placement, these results indicate a college approaching the vision of successful students.
· The degrees per tenure track faculty member have decreased moderately from 22 in 1999-2000 to 19 in 2007-08. We need some small further reduction of this ratio over the next five years, such that we compare favorably with our comparison group for AACSB accreditation.
· The average undergraduate core class size has been reduced from 150 in Fall 1999 to 67 in Fall 2008. The detailed objective was achieved in 2006, but then headed in the wrong direction in 2007 and 2008.
· Average undergraduate major class size has been reduced from 57.3 in Fall 2001 to below 50 for Fall 2008. The number of senior-level majors courses that were near the 200 class size have declined dramatically.
· The proportion of upper division undergraduate classes taught by tenured and tenure-track faculty is 31% for Fall 2008 and is promising, but has been stable for the past 6 years, but has declined from last year. This is well below the new AACSB standards of a minimum of 50% of the undergraduate SCH taught by academically qualified faculty. This could be an accreditation issue and we will continue to monitor this ratio over the next five years.
Objective 1.2: Highly qualified faculty.
Accomplishments:
· With the help of the Provost, the number of tenured and tenure-track faculty has increased from 56 in Fall 2000 to 67 in Fall 2008. Five additional positions are currently filled with visitors and/or clinical faculty.
· The number of refereed journal publications increased substantially from about 60 per year in 2001 to 128 for 2008 primarily due to hiring of new highly productive faculty. The number of these articles in prestigious journals has increased from about 25 per year to about 35 per year currently with an unusually high number of 55 during 2007.
· The total number of publications increased from 105 in 2003 to 190 for 2008 due primarily to the hiring of highly productive faculty.
· The average student evaluations of instruction have improved slightly from about 4.17 to about 4.33 over the past six years.
· The college provides $45,000 to support research-related expenses for the faculty on a competitive grant basis, approximately $100,000 to support research databases, $50,000 to support faculty development in the areas, and approximately $150,000 to support summer research stipends granted on a competitive basis. In total, the college provides $345,000 in support for faculty research to build the excellence of the faculty.
Objective 1.3: Enhance career opportunities and placement of graduates through a Career Management Center that is an important part of student services.
Accomplishments:
· The college had an Career Center score in its 2008 Business Week that placed it 25th nationally on Career Center operation as rated by employers.
· Career assessment is crucial to both accreditation and national ranking of the college’s programs. The satisfaction of undergraduate students with career services has improved from among the lowest quartile to near a median rank nationally.
· The satisfaction of the MBA students with placement has improved from being in the lowest third to the upper half of the programs participating in the annual study. In focus groups with graduating students, the MBA students have requested increased emphasis on companies recruiting MBAs. In response, we have designated one of the Career staff for the MBA program. However, the placement of MBAs has declined to 54% for Spring 2008 and 48% for Fall 2008. These are very low measures.
· The Career Management Center has recruited more than 200 employers to interview our students with an eventual goal of 300 employers. The Career Management Center has received recognition and superior ranking from Sherwin Williams, Target, Eli Lilly and many other employers.
· Eli Lilly has selected Texas Tech as one of 13 schools nationally for a special feeder school relationship. This also involves the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and the Athletic program and is a result of the success of the Career Management Center.
Objective 1.4: Programs that are the best in their field in which we have a competitive advantage.
Accomplishments:
· Academic programs in MBA for Physicians, BBA in Energy Commerce, MSA in Taxation, and MBA in Entrepreneurship; the research programs in Marketing and Leadership; and the student service programs of Career Management and Graduate Services are gaining momentum to be among the best in the USA.
· The MBA for Physicians was over subscribed in its most recent class and the two previous classes have given the program a very high assessment (approximately 8.5 on a scale of 10).
· The Health Organizations Management program achieved a highly rated reaffirmation of accreditation. The program is one of only two accredited programs in a business school. The program was recently listed as among the top 25 largest programs in health administration in the country and is ranked 40th in USNews.
· The Energy Commerce program is arguably the best program in the USA. In interpreting this, be aware that the University of Oklahoma is the only other school of note plus there are two lesser programs. However, there is a new graduate program started recently in the Geology Department of a major Texas university with a large endowment and it is expected to be highly competitive at the graduate level. The TTU undergraduate program now has 100 students in the program with 2 full-time faculty and 2 faculty members who teach part-time in the program. Energy Commerce graduates received an average salary offer last year of $68,500 with a typical $20,000 signing bonuses. There has been 100% placement for the past 5 years.
· The graduate program in Taxation has had a long tradition of being among the best in the southwest region. The program has had 100% placement with a high proportion going the national CPA firms. This is a graduate program with about 40 master’s students and 5 doctoral students. There are two full-time faculty positions. The taxation doctoral program has placed their doctoral students well over the past 15 years with individuals earning tenure at doctoral granting schools, such as the Universities of Oklahoma and Florida.
· The Marketing Research program has one of the world’s leading scholars in Horn Professor Shelby Hunt, who is consistently ranked as among the best in the world.
· The Leadership Research program has for many years has attracted Professor William Gardner to direct the Leadership Institute that was started by Horn Professor Jerry Hunt, one of the world’s leading academics.
Objective 1.5: Continue developing a globally oriented, integrity-based learning environment.
Accomplishments:
· The MBA program has now included a course in Leadership and Ethics in the core curriculum.
· Satisfaction measures with the instruction of international business have remained high and stable for the past 5 years.
· Satisfaction measures with the instruction of ethics have recently increased.
· The number of students in study abroad programs has remained stable at about 130 per year. There are successful joint and dual degree programs with schools in Norway, Prague, France, and Mexico. The number of students majoring in international business programs has remained stable at about 70 for the fall semester. The enrollment in graduate programs in international business has remained stable at about 20 over the past five years.
· The Master of Science in Accounting has a course in Accounting Ethics.
Objective 1.6: International recognition for research programs.
Accomplishments:
· With the increase in articles in peer reviewed journals, the recognition of research programs will increase.
· The number of publications in highly rated journals has increased from about 25 per year to about 35 per year primarily due to recent faculty hires.
· The Rawls College had visiting scholars from Norway, China, Canada, and Turkey for the current academic year.
Objective 1.7: Increase funded research initiatives.
Accomplishments:
· Funded research has been noticeably low for many years with a range of about $80,000 to the more recent of about $300,000. However, roughly half of the increase is due to Assistant Professor Scott Bauguess on full-time research contract with the Securities and Exchanges Commission in Washington, DC..
Objective 1.8: Establish and assess learning outcomes at a program level.
Accomplishments:
· Established learning outcomes for the MBA program and reaffirmed them during the year, see http://planassess.ba.ttu.edu.
· Issued program learning assessment reports for the undergraduate program, MBA, MSA, and PhD programs [see http://planassess.ba.ttu.edu.]
Goal 2. Access: Recruit, retain, and graduate business students who are prepared to succeed in and provide leadership to organizations and who represent a diverse population.
Objective 2.1: Identify and recruit an outstanding and culturally diverse business student body.
Accomplishments:
· Students are admitted to specific business majors at the beginning of their junior year. About 90% to 94% of students admitted to a major graduate within 3 years. We believe that this is a significant accomplishment.
· The total undergraduate business students has decreased from the peak in Fall 2002, but the number of undergraduate degrees should remain fairly constant over the coming years. The total number of upper division majors for Fall 2003 was 2,213 and was 1,859 for Fall 2008 for a decrease of 16%. There has been a decrease of 34% in pre-business students (COBAs) in the same time period. At the same time, the number of students graduating has stayed roughly the same at about 1,000.
· The average adjusted GPA for undergraduate majors in business was 3.18 for Fall 2008 and the average for pre-majors (COBAs) was 2.86. This compares favorably with Fall 2002 when the average for majors was 2.99 and the average for pre-majors was 2.76.
· For Fall 2008 the proportion of undergraduates with a GPA below 2.75 was 5.8% for majors, 24.3% for pre-majors, and 13.8% for the entire undergraduate student body. This compares favorably with Fall 2002 when 33.4% of majors were below a 2.75, 46.6% of pre-majors, and 40.4% for all students. The 2.75 GPA is significant because this is the level at which students are very likely to graduate if they enter the upper division.
· A 3.00 GPA is the typical cutoff point for job interviews with major employers. The proportion of undergraduate majors who have a GPA of 3.00 or better has improved from 47.2% in Fall 2002 to 64.5% for Fall 2007. This proportion should increase slightly over the coming years.
· The Rawls College has had success with community college transfers that have a 2.75 GPA. In order to improve the recruiting success at community colleges, the Rawls College has designated 100 Rawls Undergraduate scholarships of $1,000 for transfer students.