C-20. Disclosure of Education/Training Outcomes and Information Allowing for Informed Decision-Making to Prospective Doctoral Students
(Committee on Accreditation, May 2006; Revised November 2006)

EFFECTIVE January 1, 2007 and for published material for 2007-2008

Domain G of the Guidelines and Principles for Accreditation of Programs in Professional Psychology (G&P) requires that doctoral graduate programs provide potential students, current students and the public with accurate information on the program and with program expectations. This information is meant to describe the program accurately and completely, include education and training outcomes, and be presented in a manner that allows applicants to make informed decisions about entering the program.

As stated above, the information requested should include education and training outcomes as well as information that will allow applicants to make informed and comparative decisions. The Committee believes that all doctoral programs should therefore minimally provide the following information regarding education and training outcomes and accurate program descriptions as of January 1, 2007 to potential students in its public documents including its website, if it has one: time to program completion; costs (tuition and fees); internship acceptance rates; fellowships and other funding available; student attrition rates; and licensure outcomes. These are further defined below:

1. Time To Completion

In their public materials, programs should provide the mean and the median number of years that students have taken to complete the program from the time of program entrance. These data should be provided for all graduates over the past seven years. Where applicable, these measures should be provided separately for students who began the program as bachelor level graduates and those who began with advanced standing (e.g., after having completed a separate master's program in psychology). The program should also provide the percentage of students completing the program in fewer than five years, five years, six years, seven years, and more than seven years.

2. Program Costs

Programs are expected to make available the costs (i.e., tuition and fees) per student for the current first year cohort. This information should include full time student tuition, tuition per credit hour for part time students, and any fees assessed to students beyond tuition costs. Programs may also provide information regarding current adjustments to tuition including, but not limited to: financial aid, grants, loans, tuition remission, assistantships, and fellowships.

3. Internships

Programs are expected to provide data for at least the most recent seven years of graduates showing their success in obtaining internships. These data should show the number and percentage of students in the following categories:

• Those who obtained internships
• Those who obtained paid internships
• Those who obtained APPlC member internships
• Those who obtained APA/CPA accredited internships
• Those who obtained internships conforming to CDSPP guidelines (school psychology only)
• Those who obtained two year half-time internships

NOTE: In calculating the percentages, the program must use the total number of students applying for internship that year.

4. Attrition

Programs are expected to report the number and percentage of students who have failed to complete the program once matriculated. These data should be calculated by dividing the number of matriculated students who have left the program for any reason by the total number of students matriculated in the program. These data should be provided for all students who have left the program in the last seven years or for all students who have left since the program became initially accredited, whichever time period is shorter.

5. Licensure

This section EFFECTIVE January 1, 2008 and for published materials for 2008-2009

Reporting of program licensure data is an expectation of the US Secretary of Education’s National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity for program accreditors, including the APA Committee on Accreditation. Programs are expected to report the number and percentage of program graduates who have become licensed psychologists within the preceding decade. This percentage should be calculated by dividing the number of students who have both graduated and become licensed psychologists within the 8 years spanning the period of 2-10 years post-graduation by the number of doctoral degrees awarded by the program over that same period. That is, the figures reported by a program for 2007 would be number of students who graduated from the program during the period 1997-2005 and who have achieved licensure divided by the number of students graduating from the program during that same 8-year period. Program licensure rates are to be updated at least every three years.

Programs may interpret their licensure rate in light of their training model and program goals and objectives.

Updated 12.05.06