We define student achievement as the demonstration of competence in applying knowledge and skills gained through academic work. Such competence is evident both in and beyond the classroom. Traditional measures of student achievement include degree completion rates, pass rates of comprehensive exams, and pass rates for the AICP exam. In addition to these traditional measures, we also place a high premium on measures that capture a student's success in interacting with the profession.
Measures include the percentage of eligible students employed in an internship while a student, the number of students who present at local, state, and national professional organization meetings (e.g. American Planning Association), the number of individual students or student teams that win awards for their project-oriented work, and post-graduate employment rates in the field.
Virtually all domestic students who want an internship are able to be placed in a paid position that is part-time during the academic year and full-time during the summer. Placement is more challenging for international students. Assistance is provided to students studying on an F1 visa to help place them in internships that qualify under the Curricular Practical Training provisions of their visa.
As a sampling of recent student achievements, KU UBPL students won New Horizon Team Awards from the Kansas Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA) in 2014 and 2015 and an Individual New Horizon award in 2017. Five students presented posters at the 2015 National APA conference, three at the 2017 conference, one at the 2017 Pacific Northwest Political Science Conference, and two at the 2015 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning conference. Two students were in “Student and Active Alum Spotlight” features on the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning website in 2017. KU UBPL students have been Helene M. Overly Scholarship recipients in 2015, 2016, and 2017 from the WTS-Kansas City (Transportation Chapter).
|