Academic Policy & Governance

You will be required to provide a ‘paper-trail’ to the College Board of Studies. This documentary evidence is completed through, or uploaded onto, PIP and should include:

• Programme specification (completed through PIP)
• Consultation with students (course / programme), external academics, External Relations and, where appropriate, University Services and employers (to be uploaded to PIP)
• Proposal Support Document for programme recording progress of preparation and scrutiny of proposal (completed through PIP)
• Extract of the minute of the Committee recommending the proposal for approval
• All new PGT programmes require a Budget Plan (to be uploaded to PIP)
• New Regulations Data Input Form where new degree regulations are required. (For PGT programmes, justification for divergence from the generic masters regulations should be supplied.)

Mandatory consultations for ALL new programmes are:

• Consultations with students/applicants
• Consultations with external academics
• Consultations with External Relations (market assessment)
• Some new programmes, which have specific professional/ employer links, might require consultations with professional bodies or potential employers

The relevant extract of the minute of the College Board of Studies meeting must be uploaded to PIP. In the case of a programme proposal that has been jointly developed by two Colleges the Board of Studies should include representation from both Colleges to ensure appropriate scrutiny and approval by both.

Minutes (or notes appended to these) should record the results of consultations with students, external examiners and others, and the responses, if any, to critical comment or suggestions for improvement. Please refer to exemplar.

Collaborative Proposals

If the proposal involves collaboration with another institution, it should proceed in the same way as any other programme proposal. However, approval for the collaborative element must be sought separately. Further guidance can be provided by Academic Collaborations.

It is necessary to ensure that all courses and programmes are approved well in advance of their start dates.

New/amend proposals should be proposed in PIP by 30 April, and approved by 31 July. Colleges must advise Ruth Cole (ruth.cole@glasgow.ac.uk) in Academic Policy & Governance of the reason for any programme proposal being approved after 31 July.

The deadlines for programme withdrawals are:

• Programmes with a September start should be withdrawn no later than 31 January.

• Programmes with a January start should be withdrawn no later than 31 August.

Course withdrawal deadlines are not in place, but this should be done promptly to ensure that the Course Catalogue is accurate and that Space Management & Timetabling have up to date information on teaching accommodation requirements.

There is no fast track approval route.

Please note that the deadlines set out here are those applying to the University's approval process. Other deadlines may be set by Colleges for planning purposes. Colleges will notify Schools directly, as appropriate.

Checklists

All step-by-step actions in sequential order can be found in PIP. On the left menu, ‘Checklists’ are available for each type of proposal. It might be helpful to use these checklists as guide.

Although presented in sequence, it might be more helpful in some cases for proposers to carry out tasks in a different order. The checklists are intended to act as a reminder of the various tasks involved, but proposers have flexibility in how they carry out these tasks.

The following guidance is intended to support you in navigating the programme approval process:

• Overview of process - flowchart [pdf]
• Summary of documentation
• Guidance for Colleges on Scrutiny
• Guidance on Consultations
• Definition of Major/Minor Change
• Student consultation form-programme [Word]
• External Academic consultation form [Word]
• Employers consultation form [Word]
• Continuing professional development / postgraduate professional development
• Guidance on writing Programme Specifications

The withdrawal of programmes requires College approval; this ensures that External Relations can remove the programme from publicity materials and the website, so prospective students are not disappointed and that any students on the programme are protected as the programme is wound down. Any anticipated difficulties arising from this should be reported to Academic Policy & Governance.

Note that suspension is no longer available in PIP. Withdrawal should be used even if a programme is to be reinstated at a later date, and the 'unwithdraw' option can be used when the programme is to be revived.

Withdrawals should be proposed via PIP in the same way as other proposals (except for research programmes - see below). A School wishing to withdraw a programme should submit a proposal via PIP to the relevant College Board of Studies. Consultations should be undertaken with students, external examiners and, where appropriate, Glasgow International College (as GIC students may be intending to proceed to the programme the following year).

Further information about programme withdrawal can be found here.

Once the withdrawal is processed on PIP, External Relations will be notified automatically, although Schools should liaise with External Relations earlier if they are aware of any applicants to the programme.

The following deadlines apply for the withdrawal of programmes:

• 31 January, for programmes recruiting for Semester 1 (September) entry.
• 31 August, for programmes with Semester 2 (January) entry.

To withdraw a research programme, approval should be sought from the College Graduate School/Higher Degrees Committee, and then the withdrawal reported to Ruth Cole (ruth.cole@glasgow.ac.uk) in Academic Policy & Governance.