Evaluation process at the School of Design

This page describes what happens to the application when it gets to the School of Design. The evaluation typically takes about 3-4. Extra time is typically due to the Research Council's meeting schedules. This page describes situation in 2008.

Process

When we get applications, the process proceeds in these steps.

1. Associate dean (researc) gets all applications, reads them through, writes a short summary of the application, and sends them to the best experts at the School. These experts are typically professors, but sometimes, papers are sent to lecturers and researchers who have a doctoral degree.

2. Evaluation phase (typically 3-4 weeks). Professors and others read applications and write evaluations. Evaluation schema is elsewhere on this site.

3. Associate dean collects all applications and writes recommendations for UIAH's Research Council.

Some principles

The most important principle in this process is expertise. The best expert available reads the application.

If the plan requires expertise from several fields, or the application is a borderline case (almost but not quite good enough to pass), it goes to two or more evaluators. Typically, this is the case with artistic pieces of work that are evaluated by a team of one researcher and one artist (or a designer).

When associate dean gets the plans and evaluations back to his desk, he does several things: he reads the plans; collects evaluations; evaluates them from the department standpoint; writes feedback statements; and writes a recommendation to Research council.

Evaluating applications from the department standpoint means two things: does the application fit to the School's research agenda of other interests; and are there resources to support the research, or would it be better to apply to another program.