Elevating a concentration to a Stand-Alone Major
Due to a concentration already being established, a Letter of Notification is not required by THEC prior to submitting a proposal for elevation a concentration to a stand-alone major. Once internal approval have been received by the Board of Trustees, the elevation paperwork is submitted to THEC for approval.
The Academic Intake form will be reviewed to determine the viability of the program, if the university is able to substantiate the cost of the program and if the program will initiate a substantive change. To determine if a substantive change is initiated the Office of Academic Affairs will look for the following:
- Is the content currently taught by faculty at APSU?
- Are we creating more than half of the content from scratch?
- Are we hiring a significant number of new faculty?
*Please visit the Substantive Change page for additional information.
Since the concentration already exists, please submit the Elevation of Concentration Form (Curriculog Form 19 or 20) to elevate a concentration to a stand-alone major. As the concentration is currently in the Bulletin, you will be able to import the current information from the Academic Bulletin into your proposal. Once you have imported the data, please save and launch to allow all tracked changes to be seen. A new CIP code will need to be established as the concentration will no longer be tied to the old CIP code. The proposal will be reviewed at the department, college and university levels.
The Elevation of Concentration Form is set up in the same format THEC will require for submission. Please ensure that you accurately and thoroughly answer each portion incorporating APSU mission and goals as well as any statistics, letters of support, or student surveys conducted.
When proposing a elevation you will want to reach out to Decision Support and Institutional Research in order to obtain enrollment and graduation data. It is important to ensure not only the elevated concentration but remaining concentrations will remain viable programs. According to the Degree Components document a concentration should have an average of 5 graduates on a three year rolling average before being elevated.
Prior to sending the Program Modification to THEC for review and approval, the APSU Board of Trustees will review and approve the program. At that time, a letter of University support may be obtained by the President to submit to THEC.
When THEC reviews the proposal, they seek to ensure that other programs, including the exiting major that hours the concentration, at the institution are not affected by the creation of this new program as well as its ability to be sustained and not become low producing. THEC will then notify APSU of its decision and if approved, the program will then be added to the Academic Program Inventory.
THEC Checklist for elevating concentration to stand-alone program