New program proposals go through the following steps:  

1. Curriculum development work by relevant faculty, working with relevant CETL support offices, including the Office of Academic Program Assessment. New program proposals must include the following information: 
   • Program learning outcomes, a curricular map, and assessment plan or details of programmatic assessment.  
   • Full catalog information that meets current catalog requirements, which are detailed on the Program Catalog Requirements page of this website.  
2. Curriculum approval through appropriate departmental governance, which will be structured by local processes.  
   • New courses that will be required in the new program must be approved before the program can be approved. It is recommended that they are approved by departments prior to program approval or concurrent with this approval.  
   • If more than one department is involved, each will approve.  
3. Curriculum approval through appropriate school or college governance (The Graduate School is a separate step for graduate programs).  
   • If more than one school or college is involved, each will approve.  
4. Administrative approval by the dean of the relevant school or college.  
   • Deans have responsibility to ensure that they can implement the curriculum of the program as proposed. Initial approval at the pre-proposal intent stage and final later approval ensures that deans have appropriate administrative oversight of all proposals and resource allocations within their unit.  
   • If more than one school or college is involved, each dean will approve.  
5. Executive Committee of The Graduate School approval for all graduate programs, reviewing the curriculum of proposals and their alignment with graduate program requirements.  

6. Undergraduate Program Review Committee approval for all undergraduate programs, ensuring that intra-University curricular or other issues that cross individual schools or colleges are addressed prior to approval.  
   • This committee consists of associate deans with purview over undergraduate education from each school or college. It is convened only as needed.  

7. Approval by all academic deans, usually at monthly scheduled Council of Deans meetings, but review and approval can be scheduled for alternative meetings of academic deans.  
   • The dean of the relevant school or college presents the program to their colleagues for review and approval, with the dean of The Graduate School presenting all graduate program proposals.  

8. Board of Trustees (BOT) approval, via the Academic Affairs Committee of the BOT.  
   • Full details of requirements for this stage can be found on a more detailed page of this site that covers Board of Trustees proposal requirements.  

9. Submission of information to the Office of Higher Education.  
   • The Office of the Provost are statutorily required to report a range of program-related information to the Connecticut Office of Higher Education. Relevant information required for this reporting must be included in the final BOT proposal.  

10. Publication of information in the relevant undergraduate or graduate catalog.  
    • New programs will be included in the catalog for the next year only when approved by the catalog publication deadline. Some exceptions may be made for programs that use existing courses (e.g., graduate certificates using a subset of courses offered for a master’s degree). However, due to the need to have an adequate window to recruit new students, academic units should plan on approving new programs by relevant catalog deadlines if implementing new curricula in the next academic year. Undergraduate programs may need a longer window for approvals due to deadlines for the Common Application.