Comprehensive Standards: Educational Programs 2.7.3 (degree requirements)
The institution defines and publishes general education and major program requirements for all its programs. These requirements conform to commonly accepted standards and practices for undergraduate programs as well as graduate and post-baccalaureate professional degree programs.

Compliance
North Carolina State University is in compliance with this standard.

Explanation
NC State University defines and disseminates requirements for all its programs, both undergraduate and graduate, and makes them available in print and on the Web.  Further, the university is confident that both its undergraduate and graduate programs conform to commonly accepted educational standards.

Our undergraduate general educational requirements and major requirements meet commonly accepted standards and practices because they are reviewed at the departmental, collegiate, university, and system level.  Likewise, we believe that our graduate program requirements meet commonly accepted educational standards and practices because they are reviewed by graduate faculty at NC State University and faculty from peer institutions.

Undergraduate Programs
The university’s undergraduate programs are designed to provide practical foundations for future careers, intellectual flexibility, broad knowledge, and a basic comprehension of human institutions and the natural environment.  This is true for both distance education and on-campus programs.

NC State University makes the program requirements available to faculty via the Guidelines for Developing and Reviewing Undergraduate Curricula on the office of the provost Undergraduate Programs website.  Students can access undergraduate program requirements via the online undergraduate catalog.  Prospective students can survey NC State University’s undergraduate programs and its general education requirements.  More detailed listings for each program and each course is also published online and fully accessible by prospective and current students.    

All undergraduate degree programs require a minimum of 120 semester credit hours for completion.  Additionally, the UNC Board of Governors’ Plan to Improve Graduation Rates (1993) limits all undergraduate programs to a maximum of 128 semester credit hours unless specifically approved by the board.

To satisfy the minimum residence requirements for completion of a bachelors degree program a student must have completed at least 25% of semester credit hours required for graduation through courses offered by NC State University, and must have earned at least 30 of the last 45 semester hours of credit through NC State University courses.

The processes for establishing new undergraduate programs require a review and approval by courses and curricular committees at the departmental, college, university, and system levels (cf. Core Requirements #7).  Multiple levels of review by faculty and administrators assure us that new programs meet commonly accepted educational standards.

NC State University faculty members assist in evaluating general education and major program requirements.  Faculty input on requirements, including the addition or removal of courses or course categories, is conveyed through the Council on Undergraduate Education, which advises the vice provost for Undergraduate Affairs.

The Undergraduate Academic Program Review seeks to move the focus of program review to a student learning outcomes based model.  The process is faculty driven and employs external evaluators where appropriate (cf. Core Requirements #7).

Graduate and Professional Programs
Graduate degree requirements are published in the Graduate Catalog and Graduate Administrative Handbook, Chapter 3, 3.1-3.15.  Distance education graduate programs have the same requirements as on-campus graduate programs. 

All master’s programs require a minimum of thirty semester credit hours.  Ten credit hours of senior courses may be included as long as they are not in the department or program of the student’s major.  Most master’s degree programs require a thesis and many also require an oral final examination. 

Doctoral programs require a minimum of seventy-two credit hours beyond the bachelor’s degree.  Students with a master’s degree in a relevant/related field from another university must complete a minimum of fifty-four graduate credit hours at NC State University to satisfy doctoral degree requirements.   Doctoral degrees also require a written preliminary examination, an oral preliminary examination, a dissertation, and a final oral examination to defend the dissertation.

The doctor of veterinary medicine (D.V.M.) program at the College of Veterinary Medicine requires at least 165 credit hours.  This includes 110 credit hours of required coursework and twelve credit hours of electives over the first three years, and forty credit hours of clinical rotations and three credit hours of clinical conference in the fourth year. 

Doctoral students at NC State University also must satisfy residence requirements.   Graduate students taking nine credit hours or more at NC State University fulfill this requirement in two consecutive semesters.  Graduate students taking three hours per semester would fulfill this requirement in six consecutive semesters.   

In addition, individual graduate programs may have additional requirements; these often include internships, laboratory rotations or teaching experience.

As with undergraduate programs, the processes for establishing new graduate programs require review and approval by faculty committees at departmental, college, university, and system levels (cf. Core Requirements #7).  Moreover, the Graduate School also requires review of new program proposals and of existing programs by external faculty reviewers, who assure consistency with the core of accepted standards and practices within the discipline.  These recommendations are generally implemented by the program under review.

Distance education degree programs must follow the same process for establishment and review and thus have the same requirements as on-campus degree programs (BOG memorandum 407).   

References

• The Council on Undergraduate Education is charged with assisting in the development, revision, and evaluation of general education requirements for all undergraduate curricula (http://www.ncsu.edu/provost/governance/standing_committees/CUEd)

• The General Education Requirements provide a description and rationale for each course (http://www.ncsu.edu/provost/academic_programs/ger)

• The Graduate Administrative Handbook provides information for administrators and graduate faculty (http://www.fis.ncsu.edu/grad_publicns/handbook/)

• Graduate programs are overviewed in the Graduate Catalog (http://www.fis.ncsu.edu/grad_catalog/cat-gp.htm), which includes a complete list of graduate degrees (http://www.grad.ncsu.edu/catalog/default.asp)

• Guidelines for Developing and Reviewing Undergraduate Curricula (http://www.ncsu.edu/provost/academic_programs/curricula/currguid.html)

•   Memorandum 407 of the Policies and Procedures for Planning and Conducting Degree-Related Distance Education Activities in the University of North Carolina (http://www.northcarolina.edu/content.php/aa/reports/mem407/doc_index.htm)  

• Office of the Provost Undergraduate Programs website (http://www.ncsu.edu/provost/academic_programs/indexug.html)

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Last Modified: Wednesday, 02-Jul-03 06:45:29