Course Approval Form
The creation of new courses and deletions or modifications of an existing course all require approval through the college/school curriculum committee, and, if needed, the Graduate Council.
If you would like to request the course to fulfill a general education requirement, please go to the Provost’s website at http://provost.gmu.edu/gened/faculty.html for the appropriate forms and process.
A course approval form must be filled out for the following modifications:
- Title
- Credits
- Grade type
- Prerequisite
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- Corequisite
- Schedule Type
- Repeat Status
- Restrictions (Major, college, or degree)
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Please note:
- Changes to the course description of an existing course should be submitted during the catalog copy review.
- Changing the subject code or course number requires deletion of the old course and creation of a new course.
- Course numbers cannot be reused unless they have been inactive for 5 years or more.
How to process a Course Approval Form
Complete the course approval form and attach a justification for the proposal. For new courses only, attach a copy of the syllabus as well. For modified courses, fill out only the sections on the form that are being modified with the new information.
- Title
- If you are requesting a substantive title change, you must delete the old course and create a new course.
- Credits
- If the course has a lab or recitation component, please indicate the credits for the lecture and 0 credits for the lab or recitation.
- Repeat status
- If the course is repeatable, you must indicate the total number of credits that a student may take the course. For example: If the course is a fixed 3 credit course and the student is allowed to take it 3 times, indicate 9 in the total number of credits allowed.
- Grade mode
- Indicate whether the course will have standard grading (undergraduate or graduate) or whether it will have one of the alternative grade types (S/NC, IP). For more detailed information, go to the Registrar’s Office website (registrar.gmu.edu).
- Schedule type
- Indicate what type of course this will be by checking one of the boxes. If the course has a lab or recitation component, check the additional box "LAB" or "RCT" and indicate in the credits sections the number of credits for the lecture and 0 credits for the lab or recitation.
- Prerequisite(s) and Corequisite(s)
- List all the prerequisites and corequisites for the course. Changes to prerequisites made with this form will also be made in the university catalog and to any existing prerequisite hard-coding. For new or existing courses that have never been hard-coded or to remove hard-coding, please use the Prerequisite Checking Request Form.
- Restrictions Enforced by System
- Courses can be restricted to specific groups of students in a school/ college, major, or degree. If you place a restriction on a course, the restriction will be placed on all sections currently scheduled and any future sections for which registration has not begun. If the restriction should only be on a specific section of a course, the department scheduling coordinator should send an email to schedule@gmu.edu with the type of restriction along with the major, college, or degree code. Codes can be found in the Catalog
- Are there equivalent course(s)?
- Check 'Yes" if a course (content, title, level, etc.,) has been determined to be equivalent to another course. If the equivalent course is being offered by another department, approval signatures from the other department's unit approver needs to be obtained. Also check "Yes" in the case a course is being renumbered/replaced (i.e. ENGH 122 is equivalent to ENGL 100).
Submit the form and attachments to your department and/or school and/or unit level curriculum committee according to primary college approval policies. Then submit to your primary College/School (e.g. COS, CHSS, SPP) curriculum committee for approval.
After receiving college/school level approval, please forward the form as follows:
- For an undergraduate course, forward the form only (without attachments) with approval signatures to the Academic Scheduling Office, MS 3D1.
- For a graduate course, more information on the process is posted on the Provost's Graduate Council website.