INFORMATION AND GUIDELINES FOR ESTABLISHING
INTEGRATED UNDERGRADUATE-GRADUATE DEGREE PROGRAMS
Approved by the Graduate Council May 8, 1996
Integrated undergraduate-graduate study provides several advantages for qualifying students: (1) It permits coherent planning of studies through the graduate degree, with advising informed by not only the requirements of the baccalaureate program, but also the longer-range goals of the graduate degree. (2) For most students, the total time required to reach completion of the higher degree will be shortened. (3) The student will have earlier contact with the rigors of graduate study and with graduate faculty. (4) The resources of the Graduate School are accessible to these students. (5) While still undergraduates, students with IUG status benefit from their association with graduate students whose level of work and whose intensity of interest and commitment parallel their own.
APPLICATION PROCEDURES AND GUIDELINES
In framing these guidelines, the Graduate Council and its Committee on Programs and Courses wish to emphasize that participation in newly established and continued IUG programs is appropriate for some, but not all, students who formally meet the minimum standards for admission to such a program. In particular, minimal performance in the graduate degree portion of an IUG program serves no particular purpose, and marginally prepared students undertake such a program at great risk of failure.
IUG programs should therefore address very clearly, in their program-specific guidelines, the issues of admission and appropriateness of the program to individual students. The selectivity of IUG programs is reflected in the small proportion of students who enroll in an IUG program in a given year. In year 1995-96, for example, only 2.7 percent of those students enrolled in baccalaureate degrees in the University Scholars Program, which is already a highly selected pool of students, were pursuing an IUG.
IUG programs should also be specific about the mechanisms for evaluating students for admission and for monitoring and mentoring their progress in the program. Although there are many advantages to IUG programs, care must be taken to properly develop and coordinate the plans of students to ensure proper admissions procedures, an adequate level of rigor, efficient sequencing of courses, and expedient completion of the program of study. Proposals for IUG degree programs should include a draft version of a student handbook that will provide guidance for prospective students.
Each point below should be addressed in the proposal and in the program handbook. Any other points relevant to a specific IUG program should also be addressed.
- time of admission to the program: depending on the nature of the program, students may be admitted to an integrated degree program at the beginning of their University studies or at a later point in their undergraduate curricula.
- joint admission: students must apply to and meet admission requirements of the graduate program in which they intend to receive their graduate degree.
- plan of study: in consultation with an advisor, students should prepare a plan of study appropriate to the integrated program in which they intend to participate. The plan should cover the entire time period of the program, and it should be reviewed periodically with an advisor.
- advising: students should present their plan of study in person to the head of the graduate program or the appropriate committee overseeing the integrated program prior to being admitted to the program.
- sequence of courses: students might be advised first to fulfill basic undergraduate requirements so that if, for some reason, they cannot continue in the integrated program they will be able to receive their undergraduate degree without a significant loss of time.
- reduced course load: as many as twelve of the credits required for the master's degree may be applied to both undergraduate and graduate degree programs. A minimum of 50% of the courses proposed to count for both degrees must be at the 500 or 800-level. Thesis credits may not be double counted.
- tuition charges: undergraduate tuition rates will apply as long as the student is an undergraduate, unless the student receives financial support, for example, an assistantship requiring the payment of graduate tuition.