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Contents:
4.10 GRADUATE POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
4.11 GRADUATE PROGRAM REVIEW
4.14 GRADUATE CERTIFICATE PROGRAM
4.20 AWARD OF POSTHUMOUS GRADUATE DEGREE
4.10 GRADUATE POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
Effective: March
28, 1989
PURPOSE
To specify the process for the formulation, review and
dissemination of graduate policies and procedures.
AUTHORITY/SOURCE
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Graduate Policies and Procedures Manual 1989-90, Section
1.1 and 10.2.
POLICY
The Graduate Policies and Procedures Manual contains
the official University policies and procedures for
the governance of graduate programs. These policies
and procedures are the basic guidelines and minimum
requirements for graduate program development, implementation,
and evaluation. All graduate programs including cooperative
and affiliated programs must conform to these guidelines
and requirements. The Office of Graduate Studies is
responsible for the maintenance and distribution of
the Graduate Policies and Procedures Manual. The Graduate
Council is the body of the Faculty Senate responsible
for the initiation and development of recommendations
for Graduate policies and procedures in consultation
with members of the faculty, Council of Deans and the
Provost.
PROCEDURE
Graduate Council recommendations approved by the Faculty
Senate are forwarded to the Provost, who seeks the review
of the Dean of Graduate Studies and the Council of Deans
prior to concurring or dissenting. If revision is desired,
the policy statement with suggested revision is returned
to the Faculty Senate.
After completing
this process, the policy or procedure is officially
entered into the Graduate Policies and Procedures Manual
by the Dean of Graduate Studies. Compliance is monitored
by the academic deans, the Dean of Graduate Studies
and the Faculty Senate Graduate Council.
The complete
University Graduate School policy and procedures manual
can be found at:
http://gradschool.fiu.edu/policies.html
Effective:
September 15, 1999
PURPOSE
To establish systematic procedures for
carrying out graduate degree program reviews.
AUTHORITY/SOURCE
Provost
Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies
Dean of Graduate Studies
SACS: Section III - Program Effectiveness
BOG Memorandum
POLICY
To address the issue of degree program quality control, the University
must establish program review procedures to determine
the nature and extent of progress. Decisions regarding
program quality and the need to address critical issues
related to resource utilization to enhance program quality
should be important outcomes of the process. Allocation
of resources should be matched with expected and desired
program outcomes and enhancements. To this end, normally,
each graduate program must be reviewed at least once
every five years. To the extent possible, reviews should
be synchronized so that they are carried out with accreditation
reviews. Information compiled for the accreditation
reviews, and the required common data fields listed
in the procedures below, should be included as part
of the overall review process. In cases where no accreditation
review is required of the program, those programs must
include the common data fields below and will have the
option of providing any other additional information.
PROCEDURE
The Office of the Provost establishes a five year program review
cycle covering all academic programs. To the extent
possible program reviews will be synchronized with accreditation
reviews and reviews of covering all academic programs
including reviews of undergraduate programs. The cycle
begins in 1999-2000.
The Dean of
Graduate Studies will work with the Provost’s Office
and the academic deans or their designees in graduate
program reviews.
One year in
advance of review, the relevant academic unit shall
establish a graduate program review committee. In addition
to the committee and independent of it, there must be
at least one reviewer external to the University. The
committee shall submit to the Office of Graduate Studies
at least three names of potential external reviewers.
The Dean of Graduate Studies will select from this list
at least one of the nominees to serve as an external
reviewer.
In addition
to any accreditation information, each program must
present to the review committee and to the external
reviewer (s) the following data covering the previous
five years:
1.
Accountability and Planning Reports including among
other data appropriate to the particular type of program
being reviewed:
a. Expected program outcomes
b. Number of degrees awarded
by level
c. Number of faculty teaching
graduate courses
d. Number of students enrolled by
level
e. Amount of external funding
f. Number of faculty citations;
additional indices will be considered
g. Number of regular faculty publications
in refereed journals
h. Number of scholarly books or
other creative works
i. Number of minority students
by level
j. Number of faculty with
terminal degrees
k. Student course evaluations
l. Number of students on assistantships
2.
Department or individual research focus based on the
University’s five themes.
3.
Other pertinent information related to the program’s
national and international standing.
4.
Benchmarking data against three similar programs
at the University’s
benchmark institutions,
or at least three nationally recognized programs in
the field.
5.
Evidence of student recruitment activities.
The review committee
and the external reviewer (s) may gather and/or require
that the unit submit other information it deems necessary
to satisfy the review process. The Office of Graduate
Studies will facilitate the gathering of benchmark data
for the program being reviewed. The review committee
and the external reviewer (s) must complete their respective
reviews within six months, starting from the initial
meeting of the committee and the engagement of the external
reviewer (s) respectively.
The review committee
and the external reviewer (s) will submit copies of
their respective reports to the dean of the unit offering
the program to the Provost, the Vice President for Research
& Graduate Studies, and the Dean of Graduate Studies.
The dean and
department chairperson will have six weeks to examine
and respond to the report and shall by then present
to the Provost, Vice President for Research & Graduate
Studies, and Graduate Dean a plan for responding to
the recommendations and suggestions contained therein.
The plan shall
be incorporated into the annual departmental planning
and accountability report.
The reviews
and the response to it may be submitted to the BOR to
satisfy the requirement that universities conduct their
own program reviews.
Effective: June
10, 2003
PURPOSE
To outline the procedures for establishing
graduate certificate programs.
AUTHORITY/SOURCE
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
University Graduate School
Faculty Senate
POLICY
Graduate Certificates require 15 to 18 hours of graduate credit.
At least six of the hours must be in core courses taken
by all individuals obtaining a given Graduate Certificate.
Admission to
a Graduate Certificate program requires an undergraduate
degree. Individual departments may have additional requirements
for admission.
Students in
a Graduate Certificate program, who meet the admission
requirements of a master’s degree program and are admitted,
may transfer up to 12 graduate credits taken in a Graduate
Certificate into a master's degree program, subject
to the approval of the master’s degree program Graduate
Program Director. All the credits earned in a Graduate
Certificate Program may be used in a master's degree
program provided the student is admitted to the master's
degree program prior to the completion of no more than
12 Graduate Certificate credits.
At the discretion
of the departmental graduate committee, or equivalent,
students holding a bachelor's degree who have completed
12 Graduate Certificate credits with a 3.25 or better
GPA may be admitted to a master's degree program without
taking the GRE or GMAT examination even if the student
has an undergraduate GPA between 2.75 and 3.0. These
students need to apply and be admitted before completing
any additional hours in order to have those additional
hours counted both for their Graduate Certificate and
for their master's degree.
In all cases
the Graduate Program Director will evaluate whether
or not the Graduate Certificate credits are acceptable
in that particular graduate program.
PROCEDURE
When possible, Graduate Certificates should be designed
so that there is at least one master's degree program
in which the credits earned while obtaining the Graduate
Certificate may apply, provided the admission and transfer
requirements outlined above are met.
Proposals for
new Graduate Certificates require: a program description
including the relationship of the Graduate Certificate
to the goals and mission of the unit and the University;
the need for the program; the expected number of students
in the program over the first five years; any impact
on other units; and any required resources. If the unit
dean certifies that the Graduate Certificate will require
no new resources, a detailed budget is not required.
New Graduate Certificate approval process will be the
same as that established for new graduate program tracks.
Graduate Certificates
should be titled “Graduate Certificate in…”
Effective: June
10, 2003
PURPOSE
To establish procedures for awarding posthumous
graduate degrees.
AUTHORITY/SOURCE
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
University Graduate School
Faculty Senate
POLICY
A posthumous degree may be awarded if (1) the successful
completion of the academic work for which the student
was enrolled at the time of death would have qualified
him or her for graduation; or (2) there is good reason
to believe that the work would have been successfully
completed that semester had death not occurred. A doctoral
student who had reached candidacy prior to death, but
would not qualify under points (1) or (2) above for
receipt of the doctoral degree, may be awarded a posthumous
master’s degree if he or she had not already received
an earned master’s degree from FIU in the area of his
or her research.
PROCEDURE
A request for a posthumous degree ordinarily originates
with faculty who worked closely with the student. The
request must include a brief statement about the student's
progress and accomplishments at FIU and an explanation
of how the student satisfies the requirements for a
posthumous degree. Awarding a posthumous degree requires
approval. Thus, it is inappropriate to say anything
to the deceased's family or friends about the possibility
that a degree will be awarded posthumously until such
time as the request receives University approval.
The request
for a posthumous degree requires review and approval
at the following levels:
a. The request
must receive the approval of the graduate committee,
the graduate program director, departmental faculty,
and the chair. Before the request leaves the department,
faculty members responsible for any courses in process
at the time of death must assign a grade for those
courses.
b. The request must receive the approval of the dean
of the school or college in which the department is
housed.
c. The request must receive the approval of the Dean
of the University Graduate School.
d. The request must receive the approval of the Provost
on behalf of the President and the Board of Trustees.
After the Provost
approves the request, the Dean of the University Graduate
School transmits the information to the Registrar and
the coordinator of Commencement activities. The graduate
dean then works with the department chair and the unit
dean to arrange for the family to receive the degree
at commencement.
Last
update
January 20, 2006 3:09 PM
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