New Options for Graduate Education

(Contact Dianne Horgan, Nancy Lindsay, or Sandra Gonzales for more information and detailed instructions)

To encourage innovation in graduate education, we encourage departments to consider:

• Graduate Certificates. Graduate certificates are designed to enhance the education of graduate and professional students or to provide continuing education to working professionals. A graduate certificate comprises a linked series of credit-bearing graduate courses that constitute a coherent body of study. Refer to Graduate Certificate Processing Information for approval information. (from Academic Program page: http://www.registrar.arizona.edu/programs/default.htm)

   

• Dual Degrees. Dual degrees refer to a formal, approved program for students to earn two degrees simultaneously. Dual degrees allow flexibility and encourage interdisciplinary work. Since both degrees already exist, the approval process is minimal. Programs wishing to establish dual degrees should submit a short proposal to the Graduate College, outlining the rationale, and showing a sample curriculum that would meet the above criteria. If one of the degrees requires differential tuition, the proposal must address how fees would be accessed. Both programs and their deans must approve the dual degrees. The minimum requirements for dual degrees are:

­ Students must apply to and be accepted into both programs (two application fees will be required),

­ Students must meet all the requirements for both degrees, and

­ A minimum of 50% of credit hours must be unique to each degree and cannot be used for dual credit.

§ Accelerated Master’s Degrees. The Accelerated Master’s Program (AMP) offers high-achieving undergraduates an opportunity to simultaneously finish their undergraduate degrees and work toward a master’s degree. Such programs are growing nationally and are an excellent way to recruit and retain top students. Any master’s program may initiate an Accelerated Master’s Program, but new programs must be approved by the AMP Advisory Board, the Graduate Dean, and the Provost. The Bachelor’s and master’s must be in the same discipline or very closely related disciplines. Departments wishing to establish an AMP program should designate a faculty coordinator and small faculty committee to administer the program.

Departments wishing to establish AMPs should submit a short memo to the Advisory Board identifying

­ The undergraduate majors that would be eligible for the graduate program,

­ Any requirements that are in addition to, or more stringent than, the approved minimums, and

­ The faculty coordinator and faculty committee that will administer the program.

§ Options (also called concentrations, specializations, or emphases). We are now including options in COSMOS and SIS. This is a good way to identify a program within your major. All options within a single major need to have 40% of their requirements in common. Options may not be advertised in the catalog or in any other university publications except as an area within an approved major.