Executive Summary for the review of the Politics and International Studies program – Winter 2021
As part of Redeemer’s institutional quality assurance process, the Department of History, Politics, and International Studies completed a Self‐Study Report of the POLIS programs (two honours majors, one general major and a minor) in September 2020. A review team composed of two external and one internal reviewer performed, due to COVID restrictions, an online visit over several dates in November, meeting with students, faculty, and relevant support staff and senior administration. The team subsequently submitted a final External Reviewers’ Report on January 11, 2021.
The review team praised the POLIS programs for its: collegial relationships, deep commitment to students, strong alignment with the mission of the university, offering of two full honours major streams with limited resources, appropriate and various modes of course delivery and means of assessment, and outstanding and well-qualified faculty who deliver course content well while maintaining scholarly productivity. Areas for improvement include: expanded complement of teaching faculty, improving clarity regarding the program and its majors such as the goal of international relations stream, more frequent offering of some courses, and increasing opportunity for students to engage with practical and applied matters.
Based on their response, approved on May 3, 2021, the Department of History, Politics, and International Studies has plans to implement the review team’s programmatic recommendations before the end of the fall 2021 semester.
