REVIEWING NEW SCS PROGRAM PROPOSALS

Guidelines for Reviewing Proposals for New Graduate Programs through the School of Continuing Studies (SCS)

Guidelines for Proposal Evaluation

1. Statement of the proposed program’s professional identity and focus.

2. Course of study leading to the graduate degree.

3. Indication of the likely market for the program among prospective students. Qualifications of successful applicants. Eventual anticipated program size. The kinds of professional careers available for graduates.

4. Required and available instructional resources and personnel (number and qualifications–-be specific).

5. Any cooperative arrangements and the impacts of the same on existing academic units (if relevant).

6. Anticipated impacts on and implications for existing programs.

7. Competing programs, especially those in the immediate geographic area. Indications of the degree and basis of Georgetown’s competitiveness with such programs.

8. Classroom, library, laboratory or computer resources available. Additional needs in these areas.

9. Multi-year financial plan outlining academic and administrative costs and anticipated revenues.

10. Letters of support, if relevant

Process

Any proposals forwarded to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences will be expected to have the prior approval of the School of Continuing Studies (SCS) Executive Committee. Such proposals will then be reviewed by a standing subcommittee composed of three members of the Executive Committee of Graduate Studies. This subcommittee will be authorized to solicit evaluations and assessments from other members of the ordinary faculty as deemed necessary. Where this review raises questions about the proposed program, the originators of the proposal will be apprised of such concerns and given the opportunity to revise. For the first year, the full Executive Committee of Graduate Studies will vote on the recommendations of the subcommittee. In subsequent years, unanimous decisions by the subcommittee to approve the proposal will require no further action by the full Executive Committee of Graduate Studies, though the subcommittee will report such decisions to the full Executive Committee of Graduate Studies. In cases where the subcommittee decision is split, proposals will be forwarded to the full Executive Committee of Graduate Studies for consideration. Proposals rejected unanimously by the subcommittee will be returned to SCS for reconsideration as appropriate.