Page Revised:  March 2, 2004

Contents:
 4.10   GRADUATE POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
 4.11   GRADUTE PROGRAM REVIEW
 4.14   GRADUTE CERTIFICATE PROGRAM
 4.20   AWARD OF POSTHUMOUS GRADUTE 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 Graduate Policies and Procedures Manual can be found here: http://www.fiu.edu/provost/gradpol/index.html

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
BOR 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.

Page last updated: March 2, 2004