Ohio Department of Higher Education Considerations - CG

“The Chancellor of the Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE) has been charged by the General Assembly with the responsibility to approve, approve with stipulations, or disapprove all new degrees and new degree programs to be offered by institutions of higher education in the State of Ohio. As part of the process needed to fulfill this general charge, the Chancellor has delegated the responsibility for the assessment of new graduate degree programs to the Chancellor’s Council on Graduate Studies (CCGS), which is composed of the graduate deans of the Ohio universities. Graduate program evaluation by CCGS leads to a formal recommendation and report from CCGS to the Chancellor. Responsibility for the final program decision, however, rests with the Chancellor. Program assessment and evaluation are based on the criteria provided in the CCGS Guidelines and Procedures for Review and Approval of Graduate Degree Programs.”

As a member of CCGS, Ohio State programs that are creating new programs or significantly revising degree programs (more than 50% change) are required to complete additional steps as part of the statewide review process. Please see the Determining the Scale of Program Revision section of these guidelines for guidance on calculating the percent change for your proposal. 

Academic units that are creating new programs should request the Fiscal Impact Statement Form and CCGS Proposal Template from the Graduate School. Strict adherence to these documents is required for approval at the State level.

Registrar Form

As part of all program submissions through the Graduate School, we ask that programs complete the Curriculum Proposal Checklist for submission to the University Registrar’s Office once the proposal has been fully reviewed. Please contact Curriculum Services in the Graduate School or the University Registrar’s Office if you need a copy of this form.

General Proposal Format

We recommend that proposals follow a general format that includes Cover Material, Introductory Material, Curricular Information, Program Implementation, and in some cases Supporting Material.  Each section includes necessary elements as follows:

General Proposal Template

Cover material

  1. A Cover letter/memo to the Vice Provost for Academic Programs that includes:
    1. The academic unit originating the proposal, and one or two paragraphs briefly describing any action requested of the Council on Academic Affairs.
    2. Attachments should be explicitly listed.
    3. Any programs that collaborate with the program or any relevant curricular approval bodies within the college, program, or department from the originating unit should be copied.
  2. An executive summary or introductory paragraph describing the action to be initiated.
  3. An overview of the committees at the department, college, and university level have reviewed and approved the proposal.
  4. Cover letters from the unit’s academic dean or curricular representative verifying that the proposal has been approved at the department and college levels.

Introductory material

  1. A section with background information detailing the rationale and describing the events, history, and/or relevant actions that motivated the proposal and the steps taken in its development.
  2. Comparative data from other institutions with similar programs if available.
  3. A description of the types of interactions with faculty, students, accrediting agencies, alumni, professional organizations, and other interested parties that informed program development. 
    1. OPTIONAL:  It may be useful to include minutes from meetings, faculty vote results, survey results, letters of support, etc. which offer valuable insight into the nature of the consultative process.
    2. OPTIONAL: Any additional supporting documents referred to in the proposal (meeting minutes, or memos).

Curricular information

  1. Provide a detailing of the degree under consideration. Include all course prefixes, numbers, and titles used by the University Registrar. In addition, include course modalities.  For reference, these are In Person (P, 0-24% Online), Hybrid (H, 25-74% Online), Distance Enhanced (DH, 75%-99% Online) or Distance Learning (DL, 100% Online). It is recommended these are presented as tables with corresponding titles and headers.
  2. Courses in development should state at what level of review they are at the time of program submission and include short form syllabi. 

Program Implementation

  1. Describe how students will be informed of the program? 
  2. Describe how students will be advised regarding the opportunities and challenges associated with the option? 
  3. Describe how the success of the program will be assessed? 
  4. Specific actions and any corollary issues (positive and negative) that will arise from implementation.  Frequently addressed issues include but are not limited to the following:
  5. How the proposal will affect specific groups/constituencies (faculty, graduate/undergraduate students, staff, alumni, accrediting organizations, etc)?
  6. What programmatic changes will take place internally?
  7. How the program will affect students, faculty, and staff outside the proposing unit?
  8. Does the content of the proposal overlap in scope or substance with the interests of other units?  If so, the concurrence of those units must be sought.
  9. A summary of the adequacy and availability of resources including but not limited to fiscal impact statements, commitments of funding from any sources, and memoranda of understanding between collaborating units.

Supplementary Material to be listed in Appendices

  1. Advising Sheet(s) for students to use to track their progress through the degree program
  2. Any other relevant attachments for this proposal (e.g., PDF of website content such as degree tracks or recommended electives)
  3. Letters of concurrence as appropriate

Additional Considerations:

  1. If the program is to be delivered with 50% or more of activities occurring online, an MOU with OTDI is necessary. Please see the Online Program Considerations of these guidelines for additional information. 
  2. If the program is an international, inter-institutional cooperating degree, please see the International Cooperative Degree Considerations section of these guidelines.