Propose a New Graduate or Professional Certificate
Before You Begin
The following items must be completed before submitting a proposal for a new graduate or professional degree certificate.
The proposal should be accompanied by letters of support from the deans of schools that may be affected by the new program through any potential overlap of the proposed degree/major or proposed new courses.
Any new courses required for the program should have been approved or be in the course remonstrance process. Information on submitting new courses or changing existing courses can be found on our Add or Change Courses to the Curriculum website.
The IU Graduate School Indianapolis must receive new graduate certificate degree proposals for review at least four (4) weeks prior to thenext regularly scheduled Graduate Affairs Committee meeting. Please check the meeting schedule.
Steps to Submitting a New Graduate Certificate Program Proposal
When a department has decided to propose a new graduate or professional certificate, the department should submit a pre-proposal document to academic affairs before fully developing their degree. Once the pre-proposal is approved, the department may continue in the process of the development of a proposal.
All IU degrees and programs with 50 percent or more of the content taught online must also request approval from the IU Online program. This includes graduate certificates. If you haven't done so already, contact the IU Office of Online Education to begin the online approval process.
The Graduate Affairs Committee will not review a proposal until IU Online gives its approval.
There is additional information the IU Graduate School Indianapolis and the Graduate Affairs Committee require that is not included in the proposal. This information, along with the proposal, is requested via the online GAC Proposal Submission Form.
A new degree/certificate cover sheet is also required when submitting proposals to the GAC. This cover sheet captures information required for approvals beyond the GAC.
Please have the following information ready when submitting the online GAC Proposal Submission Form:
The Graduate Affairs Committee (GAC) meets on the 4th Tuesday of the month between the months of August through May with the exceptions of September and December. In order for the proposal to be reviewed by the GAC, it must be received by the IU Graduate School Indianapolis no later than four (4) weeks prior to the GAC meeting.
After the GAC approves the new graduate certificate proposal and final documents are received, IU degree proposals will be entered into the APPEAR system by the Indianapolis Graduate School and forwarded to the Academic Leadership Council. Following approval at this stage, proposals are presented to the IU trustees. If the graduate certificate is a new stand-alone certificate, it will go to the Indiana Commission for Higher Education as a routine staff action (RSA).
Following the final approval, the chief academic officer will send notification of approval to the dean of the originating unit, the Office of Communications and Marketing, the IU Indianapolis registrar, the director of Student Financial Services, and the director of graduate admissions where the major will be coded for inclusion in the master inventory.
School representatives can review the status using APPEAR after a proposal has been submitted to the APPEAR system.
