Section 6
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6. Courses and Programs: Procedures for Additions, Deletions, and Changes
NEW COURSE APPROVAL PROCESS
A request to the Graduate Council to approve a new graduate level course must be accompanied by a completed Request For Approval of a New Graduate Course Form and a Course Description Form. These forms are given in the Appendix. It is assumed that requests for new courses and graduate programs have been approved at the departmental and school/college levels.
The Request for Approval Form asks for general introduction about the course, a clear description of graduate versus undergraduate expectations (if the course is to be at the 500 level), an explanation of prerequisites (if the course is to be at the 600 level or above), an explanation of the relationship of the proposed course to courses in other departments, an extensive course syllabus, a list of required texts and readings and comments on the availability of library and laboratory resources, the identification of faculty who will teach the new courses. In particular, if the course is designed to be delivered off-campus or via a distance education mode, special attention must be paid to the question of whether there are adequate learning resources at the remote site (or procedures for delivery of the learning resources to these sites).
SPECIFIC TITLES FOR DIRECTED INDIVIDUAL STUDIES
a. An individual study course, taken under a professor, may have that course listed on the official transcript under a specific title. A dean of a school or college or a chair of a department must ensure that any course taken by a graduate student is relevant to the degree program and that it is of graduate level caliber. No more than one or two such courses should be included in a student's degree program;
b. Specific titles for individual study courses should be recorded on transcripts by using asterisks in order to make clear to anyone reading the transcript the precise nature of the type of course taken by the student;
c. All one-time courses taught to groups of students in regularly scheduled class sessions should be listed as "Special Topics" courses and should have their designated titles reported on students' transcripts by using asterisks.
REQUESTS TO CREATE A NEW GRADUATE PROGRAM
Requests for new graduate degree programs must conform to a procedure developed by the IHL Governing Board. The latter involves a preliminary announcement to the Board of the intent to request a new program and a follow-up report that is moderately detailed.
The UM procedure to be used for new graduate program requests is briefly outlined below. Interested departments are urged to contact their dean, the Graduate Dean, or the Provost to obtain more specific guidelines for preparing a request. Among the general criteria that the IHL Board considers for the approval of a new program are the following:
- state, system, and institutional priorities;
- institutional mission;
- institutional performance; and
- comparative funding needs.
The IHL Board consideration may result in approval, denial, or referral of the proposal back to the institution. The IHL staff will evaluate requests for new graduate programs and will consider the following factors and information (as they are relevant to graduate education):
1. Role and mission of the institution;
2. The number and productivity of faculty in the area;
3. Estimate program cost;
4. Program duplication.
The request should also contain information or proposed plans for
5. Program administration;
6. A description of the requested graduate program, including educational objectives, admissions standards, and degree completion requirements;
7. A description of how the new program will relate to other existing programs;
8. An estimate of student demand and/or an estimate of present and future job placement potential;
9. Means of evaluation of the effectiveness of the program after a five year period;
10. The availability and credentials of faculty to direct theses and/or dissertations;
11. Availability of laboratory facilities and library resources;
12. Estimated cost of implementing the new program.
In responding to item 7 above, it is particularly important in the case of a requested graduate program to describe how related undergraduate programs will be affected by enrollments in the proposed program, including the rank and/or credentials of faculty teaching in the undergraduate program, and the use of graduate student teaching assistants/instructors, etc, and their credentials. The request must also provide evidence that faculty (full-time, part-time, or teaching assistants) in the proposed program, or faculty who will replace current faculty reassigned to the proposed program, will meet Southern Association of Colleges and Schools' minimum standards for credentials and experience.
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