4000 Level Courses Previously Approved For Graduate Credit Procedures

Approved by the VT Graduate Curriculum Committee Sept. 11, 2008

Currently, there are nearly 750 courses at VT offered at the 4000 level for graduate credit.  Due to the change in policy, these courses need to be reviewed to determine the following possible actions:

• Keep at 4000 for undergraduate credit only
• Move to 5000 for graduate credit only
• Change to 4000/5000 con-joint offering
• Delete course completely from the Undergraduate and Graduate Catalogues

Based upon a preliminary review, it would appear the most of these courses will remain at the 4000 level without graduate credit and will require no further action by departments.  About N=240 will be offered as con-joint listed courses.  Recommendations on how to address the changes will be reviewed by the Graduate Curriculum Committee (GCC) on September 11, 2008 and shared with the Commission on Graduate Studies & Policy (CGS&P).

A GCC Sub-Committee met this fall and will suggest the following Fast Track Procedures for GCC review and formal vote on September 11, 2008:

1. Review the summary information and wherever possible approve classes with minor changes by a block vote of a master list of courses across categories;
2. "Deletion" of all courses Departments no longer wish to offer at the 4XXX level, will be recommended for deletion from the Undergraduate Catalogue via normal governance channels at the discretion of individual Departments;
3. As recommended by the academic unit, remove graduate credit and allow 4000 level courses for undergraduate credit only. No further action by departments needed;
4. For courses to be offered as 5000 only, full and formal review by the normal VT academic community will be required for full compliance with our upcoming SACs review;
5. For new 4000/5000 courses, the syllabus for each course needs to be reviewed and approved through the typical university review process for full compliance with SACs.;
6. For proposed existing con-joint courses to be offered as 4000/5000, the following Fast Track Procedures will be recommended to the full VT GCC for a formal vote on Thursday, Sept. 11, 2008:
1. Departments and/or Colleges curriculum review is at the sole discretion of the Departments and Colleges but not required by the GCC or CGS&P;
2. No 15 Day Review by the Registrar’s Office is necessary;
3. A brief 2 page document as outlined in the GCC’s Graduate Course Proposal Process at the Graduate School’s web site needs to be completed in order for us to be in compliance with our SACs review.  This process has been streamlined as follows;

1. No formal Registrars Office Cover Sheet is necessary;
2. All class changes will be effective in the Fall of 2009;
3. Con-joint course titles should, if appropriate, simply use the word "Advanced" in front of the undergraduate course title to designate the 5XXX counter part or if desired, "Intermediate" for 5XXX classes reserving "Advanced" for 6XXX classes;
4. ADP titles still must consist of no more then 30 spaces and characters and still need to be created but again consider the use of "Adv" for the 5XXX component of this con-joint class;
5. If necessary, use the existing item I. Catalogue Description text to address the presence of graduate students with regards to content.  Otherwise leave the current Catalogue Description as is but add "Pre: Graduate Standing" to each new con-joint class proposal;
6. Revise item II. Learning Objectives, by simply adding the Learning Objectives for the graduate students as appropriate to your current Learning Objectives list.  Make sure that the Learning Objectives are reflected in your Catalogue Description and Syllabus;
7. Item III. Justification now becomes very important. Visit the Graduate School’s Reference Guide to the Graduate Course Proposal Process, page 5, to see sample text you can select.  This section is very important and often overlooked in graduate course proposals.
8. The section titled IV, Prerequisites and Co-requisites only need the words "Graduate Standing" unless you really want specific prerequisite courses.  Then you need to briefly state why each prerequisite course is necessary.
9. The V. Texts section needs to be completed especially if you are going to require more texts for the graduate students then for the undergraduate students in the course.
10. VI. Syllabus is very important.  Remember that it is just a breakdown of content percentages. Review the Reference Guide again and make sure that the content areas in the Syllabus are reflected in your Learning Objectives.
11. For sections VII and VIII just insert N/A.

4. All con-joint course proposals will be reviewed by the GCC’s Subcommittee consisting of representation from the Registrar’s Office, the Graduate School and faculty GCC reps as needed.
5. All con-joint course proposals need to be submitted to the Registrar’s Office in Word or PDF formats by Friday, October, 17, 2008 at 4 PM for Subcommittee review.