Topic Identification

Quality Enhancement Plan

UT Tyler began initial QEP planning in the 2016 fall semester to prepare for the decennial reaffirmation. The topic identification process coincided with the campus-wide planning process to identify an updated mission statement, vision statement, and strategic plan beginning in the 2017 spring semester and included a QEP Topic Selection Committee. Within that committee, A QEP Topic Survey Subcommittee was charged with developing a survey and survey protocol to collect information from the entire UT Tyler community. The Subcommittee met during the summer of 2017 to develop a survey and considered multiple sources for the original survey topic options. Potential topical categories were based on the 2015 NSSE UT Tyler Snapshot, 2016 NSSE UT Tyler Snapshots, the 2015 UT Tyler Undergraduate Graduation Exit Survey First Destination Plans, the 2016 UT Tyler Undergraduate Graduation Exit Survey First Destination Plans, the 2016 Patriot ReConnect Survey for Non-returning Students, the 2017 Patriot ReConnect Survey for Non-returning Students, and the Proposed UT Tyler Strategic Plan pillars.

The QEP Topic Selection Survey was disseminated to students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community leaders in October 2017. Survey takers were asked to  select their top five options from among 27 topic themes. Open response items were provided for survey responders to identify other potential topics and an option to provide more detail on their selections of choice.

The leading overall topics among the survey responders included Work-Related Knowledge and Skills, Internships, Career Planning/Being Career Minded, and Solving Complex Real-World Problems. The results of the first survey were conclusive and aligned across each of the survey participant populations to such a strong degree that the full QEP Topic Selection Committee determined no further surveys would provide significantly different results and the first survey report was shared across the campus community. 

The identified topic: Real-World Problem Solving