Advisory Boards
Purpose
Franklin University employs a team approach to planning, developing and maintaining its academic curriculum. An essential element of this process and a key to the institution's quality assurance practices - is the Program Advisory Board. A diverse array of business and industry leaders make up these discipline-specific boards that provide guidance on theory-to-practice ideas, global business perspectives, and emerging topics in the field. Each academic year, Program Advisory Boards from Franklin University's three Colleges meet with program chairs and lead faculty for lively and engaged conversations, thus bringing members' substantial professional experience and expertise into the classroom. In addition, some program chairs elect to engage Program Advisory Board members in assessment of academic program outcomes.1
Program chairs rely on advisory boards to provide information related to the most recent trends in each field of discipline to help shape program outcomes and ensure the relevancy of the program, course content, and materials. Advisory boards are in place for each academic program and consist of community professionals accomplished in their fields. 2
Function
The advisory board role is advisory to the program chair only. The board has no administrative, legislative, personnel, governance, policy, or budgetary responsibility or authority. Its primary function is to provide support and advice for the good of the program.
Activities
The advisory board typically meets once per year and offers recommendations for:
- Relevance of program and curricular outcomes
- Outcomes, topics, and content in courses
- New or revised courses and special topics
- Trends in employment, skills, and workforce needs
The advisory board also assists the lead faculty and program chair by occasionally:
- Providing content area expertise in the development of courses
- Advocating for the program and the University in a wider community context
- Assessing the degree to which program outcomes are met by recent graduates by evaluating student work
Advisory board membership rosters and credentials are made available to faculty, students, accrediting bodies, and the general public on the University web site and academic bulletin.
Membership
The advisory board consists of managers and leaders who are knowledgeable in the discipline and have hiring responsibility within their respective organizations. Leaders who anticipate and respond to changes in the industry are particularly valued. Both breadth and depth of knowledge in the field are critical to ensuring the success of the program. Membership in the advisory board is at the discretion of the program chair.
Names of current Advisory Board memebers for each program can be found at: