Program Proposal Procedures

All proposals must include a justification statement for action being taken. Submit 1 copy of the proposal form and 25 copies of the supporting documents to the Curriculum Coordinator at the University Faculty Senate Office. It is important that the proposal include a copy of the program in a format suitable for inclusion in the Graduate Degree Programs Bulletin. Prepare documentation in the outline format as shown below. The proposer is reminded that the Subcommittee and Committee reviewing the proposed program may not have knowledge of the field and is encouraged to provide as much documentation as possible for the reviewers. All proposals, whether a new program or a program change, must be consecutively paginated or the proposal will be returned to the proposing unit. In addition, a table of contents needs to be included in the proposal.

New programs*, options **, and minors ***
1. The objectives of the program: an explanation of how the proposal meets the new educational objectives and/or strengthens existing programs of the college(s) and the University; what students may expect to accomplish through the new program; and a statement of how the new offering does not duplicate other degree programs within the department/college/University.
2. A list of new courses to be established as a part of the new offering.
3. A complete program statement. This should be an arrangement of courses in accordance with degree requirements and with identification of the pattern of scheduling. A list of the required courses, typical electives, etc. that will logically be taken by a student enrolling in the new program should be included. Courses that are new courses should be distinguished from existing courses. Any statement must be submitted in a format for bulletin copy with additional material if necessary (provide both a hard copy and on diskette).
4. A statement of admission requirements should be included, i.e., required test scores, minimum jr./sr. GPA, as deemed appropriate by the proposer.
5. A justification for the program*. The proposal should include a statement regarding the necessity for the program, i.e., why the program should be offered; and information on the ability of the department to offer a quality program. Included in the section should be the projected size of the program and its impact on current course offerings and faculty load as well as additional faculty advising duties.
6. A justification for the degree title used*. The academic degree titles (M.S., M.A., Ph.D.) are to be used only for degree programs that are research-oriented. A professional degree title will be more appropriate for programs that, for example, emphasize practical application of knowledge; programs that emphasize professional development for advancement in specific careers but with a more practitioner orientation; programs that prepare students for licensure in a given field; and masters programs that are not intended to prepare students for doctoral study. If a professional master’s degree is being proposed, the title Master of Professional Studies in X should be used, unless a different degree title is well established nationally. If a professional degree title other than M.P.S. is proposed, evidence must be provided that the degree title is nationally established. This evidence could include existence of an accrediting body or a list of existing programs already using the degree title.
7. Accreditation: The proposal should include information regarding any accrediting body for the proposed program area, i.e., is there an accrediting body or board (if so, please identify); or, if appropriate to the field, will the program prepare students for licensure in the field? Programs for which accreditation exists must pursue and achieve full accreditation.
8. Include original written response from departments affected (received during consultation phase).

Changes in programs*, options**, and minors**** (including program name changes)
1. A revised version of the affected area showing both the old program requirements and the new program requirements (so that the reviewers can determine what specifically is being changed). The proposal should include a side-by-side comparison of entry requirements, number of credits required, specific courses to be taken, etc. A copy of the revision to the Graduate Bulletin copy must be included, and the proposer is requested to use underlining, bolding, or italics to indicate changes.
2. A justification for changes made, such as updating instruction, together with an indication of expected enrollments and any effects on existing programs.
3. Include original written response from departments affected by the changes.

Dropping of programs*, options**, and minors***
1. A justification for the requested drop.
2. Include original written response from departments affected by the change.

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* While no single criterion can consistently distinguish between academic and professional programs, there are several dimensions that each inform the decision whether a program should be offered as an M.A., M.S., or Ph.D. or as a professional degree. While exceptions exist for each, the following statements tend to be true:

Academic degrees train students to conduct research and emphasize the generation of new knowledge, whereas professional degrees train students to apply existing knowledge to practical problems.
Academic degrees include a research requirement (paper, thesis, dissertation) while professional degrees may not include any research component, but this is not exclusive.
Professional degrees are often interdisciplinary in emerging fields and emphasize cross-training (e.g., law and environmental science; journalism and medicine). Academic degree programs may be interdisciplinary within broad fields (e.g., life sciences), but have a traditional disciplinary core (e.g., biology).
Academic masters degrees are traditionally intended to prepare students for doctoral work in the field, while professional masters degrees are typically considered “terminal” degrees, though in some fields students may qualify for admission to doctoral study based upon the professional masters in that field.
Professional degrees emphasize professional development for advancement in specific careers (practitioners).
Students entering professional degree programs often need not have undergraduate training in the field, and the curriculum provides foundation material assuming a diversity of backgrounds. Students entering academic degree programs typically must have undergraduate training in the field and graduate work begins with advanced study in that field.

The proposed degree title should communicate more broadly the nature of the training (not in terms of discipline, but in terms of types of competencies, etc. that cut across fields) and it is a huge problem if it is not well recognized and established because it would not convey known expectations to the market place. On the professional masters side, there are also some very well-established degrees such as the M.B.A., M.Eng., M.F.A., and M.Ed., and because the attributes of these degrees are well established and have market value, they are applied to many disciplinary fields; e.g., there are large number of programs in Engineering that offer the M.Eng., a large number of programs in Education that offer the M.Ed., etc.), just as the M.S. is the well-established degree across a broad range of sciences, technology fields, etc.

The intent of the Graduate Council policy is, absent a well established degree title already nationally recognized (e.g., M.B.A., M.Eng, etc,), to build a well established degree for new professional masters programs (much as the M.S. and M.A. are used across many disciplinary fields) by uniformly using the M.P.S. (Master of Professional Studies). The M.P.S. degree is nationally recognized (and in some places where higher education is regulated at the state level, e.g., New York State, including public and private institutions such as Cornell, used as the title for all professional masters degrees), as well as in many other countries.

** An option is a distinct curricular specialization within (but not exclusive to) a major; it is the only formal curricular specialization within a major that is recognized on the transcript and diploma for students in the major. Options are defined by certain minimum requirements related to the distinctiveness and commonality of the coursework in the major. (NOTE: All portions of the requirements below must be met.)

Each option in a major requires at least a certain minimum number of specific course credits (i.e., exclusive of 600 thesis credits, culminating experience credits, internship credits, etc.) that are distinct to the option. The minimum number of these credits is the lesser of 18 credits or one-third of the course credits required for the major. For example, in the case of a 30 credit master’s degree program with 24 course credits required and two approved options, each identified option must require a minimum of 8 course credits none of which are required by any other option in the major (i.e., at least 8 course credits required of students in Option A must be different from any course credits required of students in Option B, etc). Options may share additional common course credits as well, but the minimum requirements indicated above for course credits unique to the respective options must be met.
In addition, at least one-fourth of the required course credits in a major with options must be common to all students in the major; this constitutes a “core”, regardless of the option selected. Thus, if 24 course credits are required in a given master’s program, at least 6 credits must be in common (core) for all students in the program.

A student can be enrolled in an option only within his/her major. However, any major may adopt any approved option through the graduate program proposal process. Graduate programs that wish to adopt a previously approved option should submit a joint proposal with the academic unit that originated and offers that option. Any given option must have the same curricular (course) requirements in all majors in which it is offered. All programs should use the term option in lieu of the terms emphasis or track when preparing program changes or proposing new program specializations.

*** A minor must be in one of the approved graduate degree programs offered at Penn State or a formal graduate minor program that has been approved by the Graduate Council and should provides valuable intellectual and/or professional breadth and depth to a student’s program. A minor must consist of a minimum of 15 credits for doctoral programs and 6 credits for master’s programs.

Prepared by the Committee on Programs and Courses 1996
Revised by the Committee on Programs and Courses 2003
Revised by the Committee on Programs and Courses 2008

The program proposal form is available at
http://www.psu.edu/ufs/guide/grad_proposal_form.html.

The course proposal form is available at
http://www.psu.edu/ufs/guide/course_proposal_form.html
Program and Course Proposal Checklist (PDF)