Executive Summary of the History program review (Fall 2019)
As part of the institutional quality assurance process, the History Department completed a Self-Study of the History program in August 2019. A review team comprised of two external and one internal reviewer performed a site visit on October 31, 2019, meeting with students, faculty, and relevant support staff and senior administration. The team subsequently submitted an External Reviewers’ Report on November 11, 2019.
The review team praised the History program for its numerous strengths, including: high morale and commitment to the mission of Redeemer University, creating much value with limited faculty (e.g., providing reasonable course coverage in history and collaborating with POLIS to successful offer two separate programs), creative use of part-time faculty, enthusiastic and sacrificial commitment to the core curriculum, high-quality teaching that is well-received by students, strong Reformed perspective, and the outstanding scholarly and popular publication record of faculty. Areas for improvement include increasing coverage of Canadian history, integrating part-time teachers into Redeemer’s ethos, and improved support for faculty scholarship. Based on their Response submitted February 21, 2020, the History department plans to implement the Review Team’s programmatic recommendations in two phases. Phase I aims to improve and expand the history major while Phase II seeks to enhance learning goal assessment and career preparation.
