School of Graduate Studies

New Program Development Guidelines

The following guidelines have been adapted from the more extensive procedures that must be followed if a department or program is seeking approval for a new graduate program. Please use these guidelines prior to submitting your proposal to the Graduate Studies Committee of the Faculty Senate for approval. An internal program review process as well as the external review process that must be completed by the Ohio Board of Regents is also described.

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Introduction

Programs leading to the degrees of Master of Arts, Master of Fine Arts, Master of Science, Master of Science in Engineering, Master of Public Health, Doctorate of Musical Arts, and Doctor of Philosophy are administered by the School of Graduate Studies. These guidelines are designed to assist any department, school or interdisciplinary group seeking to introduce a new graduate program leading to one of these degrees. They also address the procedures for review of new certificate programs that require the completion of a substantial amount of graduate level work.

Procedure for New Graduate Programs

All proposals for graduate programs that constitute a new specialization or concentration are to be submitted to the Dean of Graduate Studies with evidence of support and commitment from each Chairperson and Dean of the academic unit or units involved. The Dean and the Committee on Graduate Studies of the Faculty Senate review the proposals prior to submission to the Faculty Senate for approval.

A. Criteria

All such proposals should provide documentation to satisfy the criteria below, although specific requirements for approval may vary according to the scope of the new programs proposed.

  1. Intellectual Rationale
    Provide the intellectual rationale for the program as a wholeas part of the university mission.
  2. Academic Quality
    Adequacy or commitment to achieve adequacy of faculty, students, curriculum, library, laboratories, equipment, and other physical facilities, in order to begin and maintain the program.
  3. Need
    • Student interest and demand; potential enrollment; ability to maintain critical mass of students.
    • Societal demand; intellectual development and personal fulfillment; employment opportunities.
    • Professional demand; requirements for program accreditation; needs seen by professional educational committees of state and national professional organizations.
  4. Statewide Alternatives
    Programs available in other institutions; evidence of local need for the programs; appropriateness of specific locale for the program.
  5. Institutional Priority
    Support and commitment within the institution.
  6. Resources
    • Judicious use of resources in terms of faculty, physical plant, personnel, student and other support. Define cost center in the university that will provide financial support.
    • Identify source(s) of external support if internal support is not wholly adequate: Community, foundation, governmental, and other resources.
    • Identify mechanism for long-term sustenance of program (e.g., if needed external support is lost).

B. Suggested Format

  1. Designation of the new graduate program, with a brief description of its intellectual rationale and purpose
  2. Description of proposed curriculum
  3. Administrative arrangements for program; academic units involved
  4. Evidence of need
  5. Prospective enrollment
  6. Faculty and facilities available for program and their adequacy
  7. Need for additional facilities and staff, and plans for meeting these requirements
  8. Projected financial needs to support program and adequacy of expected financial support
  9. Copies of reports from consultants or advisory committees used in the planning process
  10. Letter of support from Dean or other director of the appropriate university cost center.

Internal Institutional Program Review Process

  1. Review guidelines for new graduate programs and discuss with Graduate Dean
  2. Department is responsible for program design and approval of the new graduate program
  3. Review the appropriate committee of the constitutent faculty and the Dean of the department proposing the new program. Upon approval, there should be written recommendation to the Dean of the Office of Graduate Studies and the Faculty Senate Graduate Studies Committee. (As the group only meets once a month, this process may take up to two months from the time of submission)
  4. Review by the Graduate Studies Committee with formal vote on recommendation to the Faculty Senate Executive Committee for consideration by the full Faculty Senate
  5. Final Approval by the Board of Trustees

External Review by the Ohio Board of Regents (OBR)

This process is coordinated through the office of Graduate Studies, not by the individual departments or programs.

  1. Following approval by the Faculty Senate Graduate Studies Committee, a Program Development Plan (PDP) must be submitted to the office of the Chancellor of OBR at least six months prior to the formal application for degree authority.
  2. This PDP is submitted to faculty experts at the participating universities who will in turn provide written comments to all 20 members of Regents' Advisory Committee on Graduate Study (RACGS) as well as to the proposers of the program.
  3. The PDP will be reviewed for 3 factors and will take a minimum of six weeks:
    • Does the proposed program present a conflict with any existing degree programs at the reviewer's own institution?
    • Can any program quality issues or substantive elements of the plan be identified that will need to be addressed within the full planning proposal, or modifications of the program plans suggested that will refine, or enhance, the focus of the proposal?
    • Are there possible collaboration opportunities with any existing degree programs on the campus of the reviewer?
  4. The staff of OBR will then notify the Office of Graduate Studies whether or not the submitted PDP should be expanded to a full graduate program proposal and be submitted for RACGS Review. The full set of factors and processes taken into account when reviewing full planning proposals can be found in the RACGS guidelines (pp. 9-14) which are posted on their home page at:
    www.regents.state.oh.us/mainpages/programs.html

It is expected that the review of full proposals will take a minimum of six months. Full proposals may not be submitted to OBR until CWRU Board of Trustees approval is granted.