In an era where higher education faces increasing scrutiny to demonstrate its value, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (N.C. A&T) is leading the charge in transforming how institutions approach Academic Program Review (APR). We sat down with Alex Yin, Vice Provost for Strategic Planning and Institutional Effectiveness, who is redefining APR not as a compliance exercise but as a strategic opportunity for institutional growth and storytelling.
Click here to download the eBook.
Click here to download the Sample Program Review Template.
Like many institutions, North Carolina A&T faced a pivotal moment when the University of North Carolina (UNC) system introduced new policies mandating comprehensive program reviews for all academic programs. These new requirements demanded not only compliance but also a shift in mindset and operations.
Yin explained, “We had to revamp our process mainly because the [UNC] system came up with the new policy that all programs, regardless of whether they're accredited or not, needed to be reviewed, and they had specific outcomes that we needed to address. And so we had a pivot from our process on making sure that we fulfill these requirements. It's important for us to fulfill these requirements, because the state gives us money, and if we want to continue having those investments, we should follow the rules in these policies.”
These new policies included:
A 7-Year program review cycle
An annual report submitted to the Board of Trustees
An annual summary report that gets submitted to the Chancellor and then to the UNC System Board of Governors
Oftentimes, APRs are a huge lift for faculty, as they struggle to collect data and write a meaningful report on top of all of their other responsibilities. “One of the things that I've learned, is that anytime you're doing these type of reviews, faculty spend 80% of their time trying to collect the data, amongst all their busy things, and then they get exhausted. And then, they spend 20% writing the report itself. And oftentimes, it becomes more of a descriptive report. There isn't kind of that reflection on, what are we doing to move?”
With this challenge and the new UNC policies in mind, Yin is leading his office and N.C. A&T faculty in a paradigm shift. “We're gonna move away from the Burger King model, where someone asks us for data, and we provide it,” Yin told his team. “We need to change ourselves to be consultants and true partners and not compliance types.” Rather than go through a cycle where faculty ask for data, IR provides it, faculty write a report, and then IR corrects it, Yin and his team are focused on helping faculty access the data, understand its nuances, and meaningfully reflect on what stories the data can tell.
A key element of this shift has been leveraging Steppingblocks’ data dashboards to provide faculty with real-time, actionable insights into student outcomes, skills alignment, and workforce connections. “One of the things the UNC system and our legislators care about is the return on investment for the student. Do students get jobs? What kind? What skills do they acquire? Steppingblocks gives us that information in a way that's immediately usable…Steppingblocks is a pretty cool tool that links all that information and makes it accessible.”
Beyond facilitating program review, Yin emphasizes the importance of democratizing data access across campus. “If you have all the data but no one can find it, is it actually useful?” he asked. Yin is committed to creating an infrastructure where department chairs, deans, and faculty can access data easily and at the right moments in their workflow.
He acknowledges the challenge: “Faculty might think about APR once every seven years for twenty minutes. So the goal here is to make the data as accessible as possible, and ingrain it into a process that’s important to them.” By making data accessible, faculty are then able to revisit the information regularly and spend more time actually leveraging the information into action.
Data training, therefore, is not a one-time event. Yin’s vision includes creating on-demand, bite-sized training resources, ensuring that when faculty are working on reports—whether at 11 AM or 11 PM—they can quickly find the guidance they need. “We’re not perfect yet…But we’re working on building something sustainable.”
Yin loves this approach because it allows him to make data accessible and to also connect faculty to additional resources and partnerships. “I like to describe my job as Santa Claus and a matchmaker because Steppingblocks allows me to give the gift of data in a very packed way. I’m giving data that intentionally meets the goals of higher education. Who doesn’t like the guy that they’s giving them data so that they can improve on what they love?”
And how does the matchmaker piece come into place? “The matchmaker comes into place in that you also provide data about companies that are hiring our students, which allows us to think about potential partnerships with corporations that are hiring our students. And to help inform the curriculum or fulfill scholarships.” Yin explained that through this process, he connects faculty to the N.C. A&T Foundation office, the Strategic Partnerships and Economic Development Office, and more to build strong relationships.
Once faculty have access to data, it’s important that they focus on leveraging the information to tell a concise and compelling story about their program. Yin acknowledges that APRs can go so much deeper than simple facts about enrollment, course offerings, and graduation rates. Yin explains that APRs should “talk about the economic drivers that we are. The social good that we offer. And then also the individual good for the student who graduates with the degree.”
The hope, then, is that as legislators read these types of reports, they can “see the economic development that comes from our program alumni, and that we’re supplying workforce for the companies in the state.”
Given the time we’re in, this type of storytelling has never mattered more. “It’s even more important this era, when it seems like people are doubting the value of higher education…and so a product like Steppingblocks is highly important.”
Yin recognizes that the stakes for these reports are high, and that it is critical for faculty to write strong, concise reports. “The optimist in me hopes that legislators go and read [the report] and go, ‘Holy cow. This is a great program. We need to invest in you all,’... The realist in me wants the reports to be really good so that they don’t cut any appropriations.”
But then, Yin explains, these reports can become a powerful tool to share with other stakeholder audiences. “You now have a report that you can share. You have your elevator speech for the donors, for the corporate partners. If you’re doing it well, and you're strategically thinking about APRs, when opportunities come up, you jump on it. Because you know your story really well.”
By integrating Steppingblocks data, N.C. A&T faculty can now demonstrate how their curricula align with workforce needs. “Instead of waiting three months for survey data, we have tangible outcomes immediately. Faculty can walk into advisory board meetings with real data on skills alignment and employer connections.”
Yin distilled his strategy into three pieces of advice for peers facing similar reporting and strategic challenges:
Be the Buddy: Position yourself as a consultant who’s partnering with faculty to navigate state mandates, rather than being the enforcer.
Continuously Improve the Process: Use each APR cycle as a feedback loop to refine templates, data sources, and faculty support mechanisms.
Integrate, Integrate, Integrate: Embed the APR process into broader institutional goals—curriculum design, donor relations, corporate partnerships—to ensure faculty see its value beyond compliance.
As Yin puts it: “If you only treat Academic Program Reviews as a report, you’re not taking full advantage of what they can do for your future.”
Click here to download the eBook.
Click here to download the Sample Program Review Template.
Alexander ("Alex") Yin is the Vice Provost for Strategic Planning and Institutional Effectiveness. He oversees OSPIE, which is the primary source of official data for the university, providing data and analysis for evidence-based decision-making and strategic planning throughout N.C. A&T. Alex has almost twenty years of experience in planning and institutional research at two of the nation’s top land-grant universities, including the University of Vermont, where he was the Assistant Provost of Institutional Research and Assessment, and Penn State, where he worked as a Senior Planning and Research Associate.
Alex is a native of New Hampshire who earned a Ph.D. in Higher Education and a Master of Applied Statistics at Pennsylvania State University. He also earned a Bachelor's and Master's in Electrical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.