After departmental review and votes to approve in the proposing department(s), a new degree proposal undergoes review in two successive, College and University, stages:
College Review Process
- Department submits Academic Component form (Word document, not in PDF) as an email attachment together with cognate comments and other required proposal elements to: Associate Dean Joseph Bizup for undergraduate (CAS) programs and Associate Dean Malika Jeffries-EL for graduate (GRS) programs. Senior Academic Administrator Peter Law should be cc-ed for all CAS program proposals.
- Proposal is considered by both the relevant divisional College Curriculum Committee (or, for, graduate programs, the Graduate Academic Affairs Committee) and the CAS/GRS Academic Policy Committee (APC). You will be contacted if these committees identify any problems or need for clarification.
- With endorsement of the APC, the proposal is brought up at the next College Faculty Meeting for automatic consent.
The current semester’s schedule of Faculty and Standing Committee meetings (or review batch in the case of CAS Curriculum Committees) is posted here. Proposals should be submitted at least 7 working days in advance of the Curriculum Committee review batch or Graduate Academic Affairs Committee meeting at which it will be considered. (Earlier is better in case additional information is needed for committee review.) The Faculty and committees meet regularly during the Fall and Spring semesters (September–early May).
Committees do not meet or conduct business during the summer months. However, proposals submitted during the summer will be vetted for completeness in the dean’s office and queued up in order of receipt for committees’ consideration in the fall.
University Review Process
- After approval by the College faculty and the Dean, your proposal and supporting documents are uploaded by appropriate CAS/GRS staff to the Electronic Curriculum Approval Process (eCAP) system described here.
- Proposals are then reviewed in the Provost’s Office. See the Approval Processes for Curricula Actions website for Provost review flow details.
- Once the proposal is submitted, the appropriate representative from the Provost’s Office may contact you with questions regarding the proposal. Quick and detailed responses will help move the proposal along in the process.
- Depending on the type of submission, proposers may be invited to present to the University Council Graduate or Undergraduate Academic Programs and Policies Committees.
- Notice of final approval by the University Council is sent to the Registrar’s office, where the new program is then assigned a HEGIS code and set up for implementation.
Deadlines and Considerations of Timing vis-à-vis Bulletin Listing and Enrollment of Students
Proposals, once approved by schools and colleges, can be forwarded via eCAP for University-level review at any point in the academic year. Send your proposal to CAS or GRS whenever it’s complete.
However, the following deadlines are determinative of whether review can be completed in time for a new program to be listed in the following year’s (undergraduate or graduate) bulletin:
Mid-February Provost’s Office final deadline by which complete proposals must be uploaded to the eCAP system if your aim is for the new program to be listed in next year’s annual bulletin
Preceding November Planning backward from that above firm deadline, you should arrange to send your complete proposal to CAS or GRS as early as possible and no later than November 1. That ensures sufficient time for full academic and budgetary review, including possible emendations.
The time interval between final approval and initial enrollment of students depends largely on the level (undergraduate or graduate) of your new program:
Undergraduate
With assignment of a HEGIS code, enrollment of undergraduates in new majors and minors can begin immediately. You may, however, choose to delay your program’s effective date until the following Fall term (e.g., to coincide with the first offering of a new gateway course). You should discuss this question of optimal timing with the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education early in your planning process.
Graduate
For new Master’s and doctoral programs, you will need to factor post- approval recruitment of students into your timeline for implementation.
Typically, a new graduate degree program approved in academic year X admits its first cohort for year X + 2. Some new graduate certificate programs, on the other hand, may lend themselves to immediate implementation, if they draw on existing courses and are meant to be undertaken only in conjunction with BU graduate degree programs in which students are already enrolled.
Although it can take quite some time to gain approval for a new academic program, proposals are often significantly improved in the course of the development and review process outlined above. In addition, departments gain important practice in articulating the program’s value and distinctive features to a variety of audiences; and university-wide collegial involvement builds awareness and enthusiasm, e.g., for new minors, which can be pursued by undergraduates in all of BU’s four-year undergraduate schools and colleges.