Quality Enhancement Plan

A quality Enhancement plan or QEP is a focused set of initiatives designed to improve the student experience across the university. According to Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) guidelines, a QEP should:

1. Contribute to the improvement of student learning or to the environment for student learning;
2. Emerge from an institutional process that identifies key issues emerging from institutional assessment;
3. Be based on demonstrated need or opportunity to improve student learning that can be supported by data;
4. Be linked to the university strategic plan and/or mission;
5. Be focused and assessable;
6. Not be narrowly targeted toward a small or isolated subset of the student body;
7. Have the support of students, faculty, and other stakeholder groups that may be involved in its implementation.

Informed by the strategic planning process and emphasized by the work of several university committees, the University of South Carolina Aiken selected academic advising as the focus of its Quality Enhancement Plan. The University recognizes advising as a foundational connection between the university and each of its students. We are committed to providing a student-centered advising experience that leads to the growth, development, and success of all students from orientation to graduation. Our QEP will result in a comprehensive and systematic advising process that improves organization, efficiency, and communication across campus and focuses on a shift from a transactional academic advising approach to a holistic, student-centered model. This shift will occur through the development of an Office of Academic Advising staffed by professional advisors proactively handling advising for all first-year students. Professional advisors will initiate contact with students at critical times throughout the semester; help students develop key skills for academic, personal, and career success; and connect students with key campus resources. Academic units will develop additional ways to engage first-year students that encourage success. Faculty advisors will receive improved advising training and will become the primary academic advisors for students completing their first year. Implementation of the newly created P.A.C.E.R.S. goals and objectives for advising will guide this work:

• Prepare - Prepare students and advisors for success through training and technology
• Advise - Provide a clear roadmap through each degree program with strategic benchmarks
• Connect - Connect students with resources and opportunities to promote academic success and personal growth
• Empower - Empower students to take responsibility for their own academic, personal, and professional success
• Retain - Establish a culture of student persistence in the first year that promotes retention, progression, and graduation
• Support - Help students to achieve their educational and professional goals through mentoring, building relationships, and providing targeted support.

The overall goals of the QEP are to improve student success by increasing first-year retention rates, decreasing the percent of first-year students with GPAs below 2.0, and increasing 4-year graduation rates. Additionally, we aim to improve first-year student satisfaction with academic advising and provide better advising resources and training for faculty advisors, as evidenced by ratings on the National Survey of Student Engagement and the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement.