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(file upload) List expectations of graduate students beyond undergraduate expectations that would sufficiently warrant offering graduate credit for the coursework.
Figure out the following projections for the first four years of the proposed program. Refer to the worksheet for the format of these projections.
(file upload) Describe all non-academic support being received for the program.
List the number of credits required for each of the following areas to complete the program. See instructions page for details.
(file upload) Detail how each General Education Competency will be met by the course.
Figure out the following projections for the first four years of the proposed program. Refer to the worksheet for the format of these projections.
(file upload) Create a plan that details how you plan to perform future program assessments and how you plan to implement those to improve the program.
(file upload) There are two types of external graduate program application reviews.
University Review. An external review conducted by a consultant arranged by the university with approval by the office of the chancellor. One or two independent reviewers may be required depending upon the program. Preference is given to representatives of the profession or professional accrediting bodies, individuals knowledgeable in the program area proposed, and/or an individual experienced in assessing institutional capacity to deliver graduate level programming. A copy of the report, addressing all program approval criteria outlined in the New Program Application, is submitted with the program application. The cost of the external review process is borne by the university.
Office of the Chancellor Review. An external anonymous desk review arranged by the office of the chancellor, completed by a member of the Graduate Council or a consultant. This review addresses the general capacity of the institution to undertake this new program, faculty credentials, and other elements of a general nature. The cost, if any, is borne by the Office of the Chancellor.
• Reviews are not required for graduate certificates when the majority of courses are currently part of a master’s degree. An office of the chancellor review is required when a stand-alone certificate with new courses is proposed.
• Master’s proposals require university and office of the chancellor reviews.
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(file upload) This section should also include a broad discussion of institutional capacity and impact of degree beyond the program offering the degree. It will include
• Description of the institution’s quality assurance processes
• Discussion of relationship with the professional field of study and related fields to assess the need for and acceptance of the program
• Discussion of the financial impact on the institution and the institution-wide planning undertaken to support the program
• Discussion of appropriate committee responsibilities to graduate education, the capacity to staff dissertation and capstone committees (within the department offering the degree, and other departmental faculty who might serve on committees)
• Identification of other support and consultation needs (such as support for student research design and computer time, etc.), graduate student advising, and student support services.
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(file upload): A discussion of the university governance structure should include:
• Focused and effective leadership in graduate studies as demonstrated by a designated administrator with appropriate authority and resources, graduate council and a separate graduate-level curriculum recommendation process
• Policies for graduate faculty status appropriate for doctoral level studies
• Supporting policies regarding admissions, students’ academic performance, supervision of graduate students, and associated policies and procedures appropriate for doctoral studies.
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Please document any external agencies consulted in determining student interest and curricular need for the proposed program.
Figure out the following projections for the first four years of the proposed program. Refer to the worksheet for the format of these projections.
NEW Faculty/Staff Full Time Equivalent: List how many new faculty and staff would need to be added to the department each year to sustain program staffing. To figure out the Full Time equivalent, figure out the total number of program credits to be taught by new faculty and divide by 12.
EXISTING Faculty/Staff Full Time Equivalent: List how many faculty and staff are already teaching the related program courses. To figure out the Full Time equivalent, figure out the total number of program credits currently being taught by existing faculty and divide by 12.
Faculty details: List the position, FT/PT, Teaching Load, and percentage of teaching and other duties for each faculty member in the program. Follow the example on the form worksheet for the format. Please note: Teaching a 3-credit 600-level class counts as 4 teaching credits
Faculty / Staff Projections Narrative (file upload): Provide an explanation for the data you entered.
(file upload) Legislation and Board policies and procedures require that new program applications must include an assessment of need based on occupational supply and demand. Generally, a supply/demand analysis should be done for each proposed new occupational or professional program. It is more difficult to undertake the analysis for liberal arts and science programs because graduates move into a much wider array of occupations, thus making it difficult to identify and limit the scope of occupational demand. However, if the proposed liberal arts program does have some relevant occupations, it would be a plus to include the analysis.
Supply—Labor supply includes the number of unemployed individuals in Minnesota who last worked in the occupation(s) related to the proposed new program, and the number of recent graduates from programs similar to the proposed program at other institutions in the State. Other sources of supply are migration from outside of Minnesota and those who shift from a different occupation into the proposed occupation. However, there is no reliable measure of these latter two sources of supply.
Demand—Occupational demand refers to current unfilled openings and projected annual job openings due to both growth and replacement. It is important to estimate the number of job openings that are anticipated over the next ten years, even though there may be fluctuations due to business cycles. Such documentation is important to justify the investment of resources in the proposed new program, as well as to attract student interest.
Occupational demand for the occupational and professional programs must be documented for the relevant labor market area. The area can vary depending on the proposed occupation and level of training. However, as a minimum, demand data for the region in which the institution is located and the State of Minnesota should be provided. In some cases, it is also advisable to widen the labor market area to include border states, the Upper Midwest region, and even the U.S. as a whole.
Demand for a new program may be created by new legislation or professional accreditation requirements. These changes mandate the completion of the program in order to be employed in the occupation. The changes can affect incumbent workers in the occupation, as well as new entering students.
The primary source for data on occupational demand in Minnesota is the Labor Market Information Office of the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED-LMI). Ten-year occupational employment and job opening projections for the State and six sub-state planning regions are produced on a two-year cycle. At the national level, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) produces ten-year projections. Occupational demand data for neighboring states are also available from the state Economic Security Agency.
Another possible source of demand data is the appropriate professional or trade association. In some cases, there may be information that is more specific and relevant to the proposed program than is available for the more general occupational classifications produced by DEED-LMI or the BLS.
In addition to the basic occupational employment projections data from DEED-LMI and BLS, it is also advisable to have additional documentation of demand for the program. There are several ways to document occupational demand.
Surveys—You can survey potential employers directly. Mailing lists can be obtained from advisory or steering committees, professional associations, licensure, registration, or certification boards, phone, business or member directories or other sources. One excellent source of names of major employers in a community is the DEED Community Profile Tool (
http://www.mnpro.com/). Another source of information is the Career One Stop Employer Locator Tool--(
http://www.acinet.org/acinet/employerlocator/employerlocator.asp?id=14&nodeid=18).
The survey can request the following kinds of information:
• Number of current employees in proposed occupational area(s)
• Typical job titles and wages of employees in the proposed occupation
• Number of projected employees to be hired over the next year, or the next three years in new or replacement positions
• Difficulty experienced in hiring qualified individuals
• Number or percent of employers that support development of the proposed program
• Number of employers that would consider hiring graduates of the proposed program
• Interest in offering an internship site for students in the proposed program
• Interest in being a member of an advisory committee for the proposed program.
Labor Market Information Research—In addition to the occupational employment projections produced by the BLS and DEED-LMI, there are several other sources for labor market information that can be used to document demand.
• Documentation from professional organizations indicating the demand for employees
• Articles discussing employment opportunities in professional, trade and business journals, newsletters, publications and web sites
• An analysis over time of job openings using job banks such as USAJOBS.GOV or MONSTER.COM
Librarians, DEED Regional Labor Market Analysts, and placement or employment specialists may also be of assistance in researching other information to document occupational demand.
Informal research—Local or statewide research can also be conducted in less formal ways:
Documented calls to college placement services requesting information on graduates of such a program,
• Advisory or steering committee information that reflects reliable industry assessment of projected employment demand,
• Documentation from grant applications and partnerships for the proposed program,
• Economic development organizations—membership and minutes and letters of support, or
• Letters of support from potential employers indicating demand and that they would support development of the proposed program, consider hiring graduates of the proposed program, and/or would be interested in serving as an internship site or on an advisory committee.
Labor Market Information—There are two basic steps necessary to gather labor market demand data. First, you need to identify the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code(s) that are related to the proposed program. In some cases there will be a clearly identifiable SOC code. In other cases, however, the proposed program may be for a very specific occupation or one that is new and emerging. In this case, the best one can do is to find the SOC code that represents the more general group of occupations that includes the one in your new program. The following websites will enable you to identify the most appropriate SOC code:
SOC Code Search Tool--(
http://www.deed.state.mn.us/lmi/tools/socsearch.htm) This tool searches a database of hundreds of thousands of lay-titles to match your occupation with the closest BLS-defined SOC Code.
O*Net Quick Search—(
http://online.onetcenter.org/find/) This search tool allows you to find occupations using keywords or O*NET-SOC codes, or by browsing Job Families, High Growth industries, STEM disciplines, or O*NET Descriptors. See the MnSCU page (
http://www.academicaffairs.mnscu.edu/academicprograms/instructions/progdevel-needsassessment.pdf) for instructions and examples on using this site.
CONTACTS: MINNESOTA LABOR MARKET DATA
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(file upload) If the curriculum of the proposed program exceeds MnSCU’s approved total program credit length, create a justification for the program length. Please note: As of January 2009, MnSCU requires all baccalaureate programs to be a maximum of 120 credits in length.
(file upload) If the course content or title is similar to courses in other departments, you will need to acquire a letter of agreement with that department. Describe the nature of the discussions held and the resolution of the differences of potential conflicts.
(file upload) Detail any library resources—both currently available and needed to be acquired—that would be required in order for the course to be successful.
(file upload) List the strategies to be used in measuring how students in the course are achieving the General Education course competencies.
Course numbers that have been used in the last seven years are not available for re-use because students can graduate under an Undergraduate Bulletin for up to seven years. Re-using course numbers creates chaos when advising students and evaluating their graduation applications. The only cases where course numbers can be re-used are when the content of the course does not change (e.g., removing a W from a course).
(file upload) Upload a file that details student graduation data for the past five years of the program intended for suspension.
(file upload) It is necessary to document student interest in proposed programs. This information is sometimes difficult to get, so plenty of time should be allowed for surveys or other kinds of research. Following are options for gathering this information.
• Surveys of students currently enrolled in related programs can be conducted. For example, students enrolled in customized training clock hour courses in the college(s), or students in lower division courses within a discipline. They could be asked whether they would be interested in the proposed program;
• Surveys of high school counselors and students in related courses in area high schools can be used to estimate the potential number of students;
• Surveys of potential employers indicating how many current employees would be interested in taking courses or enrolling in the program;
• An advertisement or an item on the college website could be used to solicit interest levels.
• Student interest in majors can be gleaned from the ACT Educational Planning and Assessment System (EPAS). This is a group of tests developed by ACT to assess student preparation for post-secondary education. Minnesota will pay for the standard test reports when public school districts give the EXPLORE to eighth-graders and/or PLAN to tenth-graders in 2007-08 and 2008-09.
• Documentation of student demand for similar programs from industry publications, professional journals, government publication, grant applications and partnerships for the proposed program.
(file upload): It is necessary to document student interest in proposed programs. This information is sometimes difficult to get, so plenty of time should be allowed for surveys or other kinds of research. Following are options for gathering this information.
• Surveys of students currently enrolled in related programs can be conducted. For example, students enrolled in customized training clock hour courses in the college(s), or students in lower division courses within a discipline. They could be asked whether they would be interested in the proposed program;
• Surveys of high school counselors and students in related courses in area high schools can be used to estimate the potential number of students;
• Surveys of potential employers indicating how many current employees would be interested in taking courses or enrolling in the program;
• An advertisement or an item on the college website could be used to solicit interest levels.
• Student interest in majors can be gleaned from the ACT Educational Planning and Assessment System (EPAS). This is a group of tests developed by ACT to assess student preparation for post-secondary education. Minnesota will pay for the standard test reports when public school districts give the EXPLORE to eighth-graders and/or PLAN to tenth-graders in 2007-08 and 2008-09.
• Documentation of student demand for similar programs from industry publications, professional journals, government publication, grant applications and partnerships for the proposed program.
(file upload): It is necessary to document student interest in proposed programs. This information is sometimes difficult to get, so plenty of time should be allowed for surveys or other kinds of research. Following are options for gathering this information.
• Surveys of students currently enrolled in related programs can be conducted. For example, students enrolled in customized training clock hour courses in the college(s), or students in lower division courses within a discipline. They could be asked whether they would be interested in the proposed program;
• Surveys of high school counselors and students in related courses in area high schools can be used to estimate the potential number of students;
• Surveys of potential employers indicating how many current employees would be interested in taking courses or enrolling in the program;
• An advertisement or an item on the college website could be used to solicit interest levels.
• Student interest in majors can be gleaned from the ACT Educational Planning and Assessment System (EPAS). This is a group of tests developed by ACT to assess student preparation for post-secondary education. Minnesota will pay for the standard test reports when public school districts give the EXPLORE to eighth-graders and/or PLAN to tenth-graders in 2007-08 and 2008-09.
• Documentation of student demand for similar programs from industry publications, professional journals, government publication, grant applications and partnerships for the proposed program.
(file upload): It is necessary to document student interest in proposed programs. This information is sometimes difficult to get, so plenty of time should be allowed for surveys or other kinds of research. Following are options for gathering this information.
• Surveys of students currently enrolled in related programs can be conducted. For example, students enrolled in customized training clock hour courses in the college(s), or students in lower division courses within a discipline. They could be asked whether they would be interested in the proposed program;
• Surveys of high school counselors and students in related courses in area high schools can be used to estimate the potential number of students;
• Surveys of potential employers indicating how many current employees would be interested in taking courses or enrolling in the program;
• An advertisement or an item on the college website could be used to solicit interest levels.
• Student interest in majors can be gleaned from the ACT Educational Planning and Assessment System (EPAS). This is a group of tests developed by ACT to assess student preparation for post-secondary education. Minnesota will pay for the standard test reports when public school districts give the EXPLORE to eighth-graders and/or PLAN to tenth-graders in 2007-08 and 2008-09.
• Documentation of student demand for similar programs from industry publications, professional journals, government publication, grant applications and partnerships for the proposed program.
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Detail the plan to allow students currently enrolled in the program to complete it despite its suspended status.
Please list all technology, equipment, and facilities required to deliver the program, including those already existing and those that need to be added.
Create a plan to show how a student can complete your program in four years.
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Determining whether there is a need for a new program requires assessing whether other programs in the service area will be impacted negatively, and whether system resources are used efficiently. The assessment will take into account such measures as: the proximity of the proposed program to existing programs, whether there is sufficient potential enrollment to sustain all programs, and whether there are sufficient projected job openings for graduates of all programs.
The service area should roughly correspond to a likely labor market area for the occupation and/or the area where potential students are located. Traditionally this has been defined as a either specific region or group of counties of the state or an area within a one hour drive of the proposed program location. The labor market may vary depending on the nature of the occupation. For example, occupations that have lower wage levels will typically have smaller geographic labor markets because long commutes are not economically viable. For other programs, such as unique programs, the service or market area can be the entire state, the upper Midwest region or other designated area. This is generally the case for bachelor degree programs where there is often significant relocation following completion of the program.
Enrollment Impact/System Efficiency—The proposed program should not adversely affect enrollment in related programs at existing public colleges and universities within the proposed service area.
• Check the program inventory for related programs offered by system colleges and universities. Contact Academic Programs staff for a list of programs similar to the proposed program or check the current inventory available at the Program Review website. Click on Program Inventories (
http://www.programreview.project.mnscu.edu/).
• A detailed environmental scan should also examine similar programs offered by private nonprofit colleges, private proprietary schools and the U of M to assess potential for competition for enrollments. The Career One Stop education and training tool at Find College Programs (
http://www.careeronestop.org/EducationTraining/Find/CollegesTraining.aspx) may be of assistance in helping to identify other Minnesota higher education institutions offer programs similar to the one being developed.
• Use MAPQUEST (
http://www.mapquest.com) or GOOGLE MAPS (
http://maps.google.com/maps?tab=wl) to determine the distance from existing programs at other institutions to your institution. The Career One Stop tool also allows you to search for comparable programs within a 1-50 mile radius of a specified zip code. Based on your knowledge and information on your institution service area, determine if there is likely to be a significant overlap in areas served by the potential new program.
• Check enrollment level and trends in similar programs at other system institutions. Student enrollment (FYE) data are available from the system Instructional Cost Study. Institutional Cost Study (
http://www.finance.mnscu.edu/index.html).The level of detail for FYE data varies, with 4-digit CIP code being the most common. In addition to enrollment, the size of similar programs at other public and private colleges, in terms of number of graduates, can be gleaned from the Market Share dashboard found at MnSCU MARKET SHARE REPORTS (
http://www.mnscu.edu/board/accountability/9/B/index.html)
Employment Impact/Student Employment Success—The anticipated number of graduates should not adversely affect placement of graduates from programs at existing sites in the proposed service area. All existing similar programs in the service area should be experiencing successful graduate employment, related employment, continuing education, transfer or advanced study (over 75 percent).
Evaluate the placement rate of graduates of similar programs offered by other system colleges and universities by examining data from the Graduate Follow-up Survey. Data are available on both Total Employment Rate and Related Employment Rate. Contact the Labor Market Analyst for assistance with the data or consult the Minnesota Consumer Report on ISEEK.
MINNESOTA CONSUMER REPORT (
http://www.iseek.org/sv/ProgramOpt?outId=22035)--T he Consumer Report contains employment and wage data on program graduates required by the Workforce Investment Act (WIA).
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