This section contains the guidelines for creating and submitting course and degree proposals to the UCCC. The Guide & Format for Curriculum Proposals provides the policies, directions, and procedures that must be followed for all proposed changes to the curriculum. Faculty are encouraged to familiarize themselves with it and refer to it for specific questions and details, but a quick guide to the curriculum management process is provided here. Curriculum development is the responsibility of the faculty at Mississippi State University. The curriculum process begins with individual faculty and is reviewed by program, departmental, college, and university faculty.
Approval Timeline
The timeline for approval can vary significantly depending on the type of proposals, but all share some elements. Once proposals are reviewed by the department and the Director of Academic Quality (degree proposals only), they must be submitted to their respective college curriculum committee, who will forward them to the UCCC once reviewed and approved. Once reviewed and approved by the UCCC, proposals will be sent to the Academic Deans Council for final approval at the university level. With submission deadlines, and assuming there are no issues with a proposal that cause it to be rolled back, on average a proposal will take a month to be approved at each of these levels.
The Academic Deans Council is the final step for all course proposals, but degree proposals will often need further review by IHL and possibly SACSCOC. The Guide & Format page 14 contains a table that lays out what levels of approval and notifications are required for various types of proposals and the Director of Academic Quality will help determine what additional steps are required. IHL approval can add two-three months depending on IHL’s schedule, which can be found here.
All times mentioned are approximate, so please be aware of all submission deadlines! Missing one deadline by just a few weeks may cause your proposal's final approval to be delayed by as much as several months. Please also note that the UCCC and IHL do not meet during the summer. In order to increase the likelihood of having a degree proposal placed on the IHL May agenda, it will ideally need to be placed on the UCCC's February agenda at the very latest.