Creating a New Academic Program

General Information

Creation of a new academic program is generally accomplished in two stages. First, the sponsoring unit must seek planning authorization from The Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR). Next, once planning authority has been granted, the unit has three years to come before ABOR with a request for implementation. ABOR must approve all new academic programs before they may be announced or implemented.

Prior to ABOR review, proposals are subject to extensive campus review by college and university faculty and administration. Accordingly, proposals need to include information which satisfies many different viewpoints. The review process for either type of proposal can take anywhere from four months to two years, as sometimes proposals need to be rewritten and resubmitted in response to questions raised by committee members.

Proposals should be submitted as an e-mail attachment or through campus mail to:

Patti J. King
Senior Associate, Academic Affairs
Office of Academic Affairs
CCIT 337
P.O. Box 210073
Campus

Phone: 621-4107

Guidelines and forms for developing a request for planning or implementation authorization are available for download from this site. What follows is a brief overview of how each proposal type is processed.

Forms and guidelines for submitting program proposals

Planning Authorization

When requesting the authority to plan a new program, the unit initiating the request must determine whether or not the proposed program duplicates another program at UA, ASU, or NAU. By ABOR policy, a duplicative program is defined as a program that shares a CIP code with an existing program. (CIP designations are based on the U.S. Department of Education's Classification of Instructional Programs, last updated in 2000.)

For the CIP code for a proposed program, contact Patti J. King in the Office of Academic Affairs, 621-4107. To determine whether or not the proposed program duplicates an existing program, contact J.J. Jenson, at 602-229-2531 or jewelyn.jenson@AZREGENTS.EDU.

The Board's judgment in granting planning authorization is based primarily on two criteria:

• the state's need for the proposed program, and
• whether or not the university making the request is
  the appropriate location for the new program

Before a request for planning authorization can be reviewed by ABOR, it must be reviewed and approved by the following individuals or committees:

Planning Authorization Form and Guidelines for a Unique or Duplicative Program*

Implementation Authorization

Proposed degrees, majors, and minors are initiated by the department as a request to implement a new academic degree program. In most cases, implementation proposals will not be reviewed for programs that do not have planning authorization from the Board.

If the proposed program has not been assigned a CIP code and duplicative/unique status during the planning process, both must be accomplished before an implentation request can be initiated. See the preceding section for more information.

Implementation proposals for new programs must be accompanied by a budget. A form for presenting budget information is available for download at the end of this section.

Before a request for implementation authorization will be reviewed by ABOR, it must be reviewed and approved by the following individuals or committees:

Implementation Authorization Form and Guidelines for a Unique Program*
Implementation Authorization Form and Guidelines for a Duplicative Program*
New Academic Program Budget Projections Form (MS Excel 5.0/95)

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