Expedited Review Process of Limited Off-site Course Offerings
February 2000
There are situations in which graduate degree granting colleges or campuses (i.e., University Park, Penn State Great Valley, Penn State Harrisburg, Penn State Erie) must move quickly to schedule courses off-site. These situations may involve an invitation by a corporation to offer courses to employees at corporate headquarters or an unscheduled opportunity to offer courses at a campus not offer a graduate degree.
The following process is designed to enable graduate degree granting programs to offer up to three (3) graduate courses at a specific off-site location while bypassing the full procedure of review by the Graduate Council Committee on Programs and Courses. This process is not a substitute for proposals involving more than three (3) courses, new courses, or degree program delivery.
Conditions
- No more than a total of three (3) courses may be offered by the graduate degree granting campus at any one off-site location using this procedure.
- The courses to be delivered are existing courses from approved graduate degree programs.
- The faculty members teaching the courses are members of the graduate faculty or have been pre-approved to teach these courses by the Graduate School.
- If courses at a specific location are successful and the campus/college decides to seek approval for additional offerings, existing procedures for proposing off-site graduate degrees must be followed.
- Whether the courses offered would be accepted as graduate level courses applicable toward a Penn State degree would depend upon the criteria of the graduate programs as defined by the graduate degree program and the Graduate School.
- Registrants in these courses must have been admitted as a nondegree graduate student or as a degree-seeking graduate student.
Procedures
- The graduate degree granting campus completes the "Expedited Review
Form for Offering Graduate Courses Off-Site." This form includes:
- delivery location;
- course(s) to be offered;
- faculty members scheduled to teach each course;
- a statement documenting the availability of library, technology and other required resources;
- the intended students;
- a time line for course offerings; and
- a statement indicating that current and prospective students will be informed that taking these courses does not constitute acceptance into, or the delivery of, a degree program.
- The Expedited Review Form is shared with all relevant curricular groups at the campus/college, including the Academic Executive Council, Curricular Affairs Committee, and campus faculty senate.
- Signatures of the department/division head and college dean or appropriate administrator are obtained.
- The document is sent to the Graduate School.
- The document is reviewed by the Associate Dean and the chair of the Committee on Programs and Courses. Within ten (10) days of submission, the proposing campus will receive a response.