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NRC Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs at CU-Boulder

What we need programs to do by August 25

Private site for UCB coordinators/contacts, primarily for approvals and submissions

1. Familiarize yourselves (faculty and staff contacts/coordinators) with the UCB NRC website http://www.colorado.edu/pba/nrc/ and read the welcome message from Susan Avery.

2. At the site, review the timeline. Be advised that it’s tentative, largely due to NRC delays in issuing final instruments and guidelines.

3. Prepare to determine your "other field" selections, if any. ["Other fields" is a technical term(!), read on.]  We need these now because our first deadline is August 31, when we submit a list of all our programs, each with a primary field and, if desired, additional "other" fields. Your job is to figure out what if any "other fields" you want associated with your program. Here's how to proceed:

• See the vocabulary page, especially the key concepts “program,” and “field.”
• See the list of UCB programs that will be reported to NRC, plus Education and Business programs that will be reported only to the AAU data exchange (AAUDE) because they fall outside the NRC taxonomy. Notice the primary fields already assigned to each program by the steering committee. Notice that some fields (e.g., MCDB, Cognitive Science, Neuroscience) have “other” fields assigned as well, initially by the steering committee.
• If you want to know what other AAU schools are listing, pick “Tentative NRC program and field listings at AAU institutions” on our webpage, and use the separate login/password that you have been sent for this. All listings there are tentative. Some schools are not using any “other fields,” some have used many.  The number of "other fields" used is listed on the "list of institutions submitting program lists," available from the same webpage. Caution:  Listings for UCB are not updated instantly on the AAUDE site!
• To see the list of all NRC fields go to http://www7.nationalacademies.org/resdoc/Taxonomy_list.html. This is on the general website for the national study.
• Decide if you want “other”/additional fields (up to 9) listed for your program
• Why you might: Puts your program on additional field lists of results that prospective students will see
• Why you might not: No need, the primary field well describes your program, no one would look for a program like yours under any other fields.

4. Add, change, delete, and/or approve your “other field” selection(s).  We must have program approval even if no "other" fields are to be listed. 
• To do this, go to the link “Private site for CU-Boulder coordinators/contacts” at the top of this page.  We have sent a separate message with login and password to this site to all program coordinator/contacts.
• Once there, pick “Submit/change/approve 'other'/additional fields” and follow the instructions.
• We will show confirmation of your choices and send you a confirmation email as well.
• Make and approve your choices by August 25, even if you’re opting for no additional fields.  We need to know that all programs have responded before we submit our list to the NRC.

5. The steering committee may modify some additional field selections for consistency or strategic reasons. We’ll consult directly with any programs before we do so.

6. To pose a question to the steering committee, send email to NRC_UCB@colorado.edu

Last revision 07/19/10