Acronyms and Definitions

Graduate

Undergraduate

• A structured set of courses specified by a Department, Faculty or Affiliated University College to allow students to acquire a specific set of skills or competencies. 
• May be pursued concurrently with, or subsequent to, the completion of a Bachelor's degree. 
• Should be awarded when the following criteria are met:
  1. normally a pre-degree program;
  2. normally requiring up to the equivalent of one calendar year or more to complete; and
  3. normally consisting of a minimum of 3.0 courses, frequently in combination with a certificate-credit component. 

Graduate

• A Collaborative Specialization is an intra-university graduate field of study that provides an additional multidisciplinary experience for students enrolled in and completing the degree requirements for one of a number of approved masters and/or PhD programs. Students meet the admission requirements of and register in the participating (or “home”) program but complete, in addition to the degree requirements of that program, the additional requirements specified by the Collaborative Specialization. The degree conferred is that of the home program, and the completion of the Collaborative Specialization is indicated by a transcript notation indicating the additional specialization that has been attained. 
• Students are registered in the participating degree program, meeting the requirements of the participating program as well as those of the collaborative specialization. 
• A Collaborative Specialization must have:
  • At least one core one-semester course that is foundational to the specialization and does not form part of the course offerings of any of the partner programs. This course must be completed by all students from partner programs registered in the specialization and provides an opportunity for students to appreciate the different disciplinary perspectives that can be brought to bear on the area of specialization. This course may serve as an elective in the student’s home program.
  • Clear and explicit requirements for each Collaborative Specialization. In programs requiring a major research paper, essay, or thesis, the topic must be in the area of the collaborative specialization. In course-only Master’s programs, at least 30% of the courses must be in the area of specialization including the core course described above. Courses in the area of specialization may be considered electives in the home program.
  • Only core faculty that are those faculty members in the participating home programs who have an interest and expertise in the area of the collaborative specialization (this may include faculty appointed 100% to an interdisciplinary academic unit – for example, an Institute of American Studies – that provides the anchor for the specialization).
  • In place appropriate administrative and academic oversight/governance to ensure requirements associated with the specialization are being met[1]

   

  [1] (http://oucqa.ca/framework/1-6-definitions/)

Graduate

Undergraduate

Graduate

A Graduate Diploma is a complete set and sequence of courses, combinations of courses and/or other units of study prescribed by a university for the fulfillment of the requirements for each particular for-credit graduate diploma

Certificates, Diplomas and Micro-credential Policy

Graduate Diplomas, OUCQA

Graduate Diploma Differences in Practice

• A Type 2 Graduate Diploma program is intended to demonstrate mastery of a topic area that is usually complementary to, but not embedded within, a graduate student’s home program. The Type 2 diploma is to be completed concurrent with a student’s home degree program. The goal of the Type 2 Graduate Diploma is to encourage breadth at the graduate level, often through interdisciplinary studies. A student who completes a program and a Graduate Diploma should have achieved different learning outcomes than a student who has completed only the normal degree requirements.  
• Type 2 Graduate Diplomas are achieved by successfully completing the academic requirements of the student’s home degree program and additional academic requirements associated with the Graduate Diploma. These additional Graduate
  Diploma requirements are minimally equivalent to 1.0 Full Credit Equivalents (FCEs) achieved through courses or milestones. These requirements must be additional to the requirements of the home program. 
• The home graduate program participating in the Graduate Diploma may allow specified Graduate Diploma courses to also be counted as electives in the student’s home program. However, a minimum of 1.0 FCE requirements must be unique to the Graduate Diploma and can not also be counted towards the home program’s requirements. 
• A Type 3 Graduate Diploma program has requirements minimally equivalent to 1.5 FCEs achieved through courses or milestones. An interdisciplinary Graduate Diploma program may be proposed by one or more academic units

 Undergraduate

• A structured set of courses specified by a Department, Faculty or Affiliated University College to allow students to acquire a specific set of skills or competencies. 
• Normally post-graduate programs. 
• Should be awarded when the following criteria are met:
  1. normally a post-degree program;
  2. normally requiring the equivalent of one calendar year or more to complete; and
  3. normally consisting of a minimum of 5.0 courses.

Graduate

Undergraduate

Graduate

• a significant change to the learning outcome(s) of the program

• a significant change to the learning outcome(s) is one that changes, broadens or limits the subsequent career or educational opportunities of the graduates (e.g., a master’s program currently aimed at educating doctoral program-bound graduates revises its curriculum to yield master’s graduates with practical experience in applied areas directly relevant to professional careers)

• elimination, introduction, or replacement of a thesis requirement 
• introduction of a course-based option  
• replacement of a course-requirement with a practical or experiential requirement 
• creation, deletion or renaming of a field.

Undergraduate

• Introduction of new module (honors specialization, specialization, or major) that comprises primarily existing courses and that is offered with existing faculty expertise and resources. 
• Introduction of a new diploma or certificate program. Any change to an existing program that affects the learning outcome(s) of the program.
  • a significant change to the learning outcome(s) is one that changes, broadens or limits the subsequent career or educational opportunities of the graduates.
• Any change that is considered more substantive than what is appropriate for Western’s Deans Academic Process (DAP) for review and approval.

Graduate

• A change to the content or title of a course. 
• A change that does not affect the program requirements or learning outcomes.

Undergraduate

• Submissions to DAP (the Deans’ Academic Programs Committee or "Virtual Committee" of ACA), which:

• revise a module or program
• introduce, revise or withdraw a course
• change the weight of a 1.0 (full) course to a 0.5 (half) course, or vice versa. (This is done by withdrawing one course and introducing a new one in its place with a new number. The former course is listed as an antirequisite.)
• change the essay designation on a course, e.g., A/B to F/G or vice versa
• delete, change, or add an antirequisite, prerequisite or corequisite

• Minor course changes include:

• changes to titles or descriptions of courses which do not substantively change the course content
• changes to course hours

Graduate

Undergraduate

• A structured set of courses specified by a Department, Faculty or Affiliated University Western’s IQAP 5 College to fulfill the requirements of an Honors Specialization, Specialization, Major or Minor. Modules are the central components that determine the disciplinary character of a Degree. Students can combine different modules from different subjects, departments and Faculties to construct individualized, interdisciplinary degrees.  

• Honors Specialization module:
  • Comprised of 9.0 or more courses designated by a Department, Faculty or Affiliated University College; available only in an Honors Bachelor Degree (Four-Year).
• Specialization module:
  • Comprised of 9.0 or more courses designated by a Department, Faculty or Affiliated University College; available only in a Bachelor Degree (Four-Year).
• Major module:
  • Comprised of 6.0 or 7.0 courses designated by a Department, Faculty or Affiliated University College. This module is available in the Bachelor Degree (Four- Year), the Bachelor Degree (Three-Year), and the Honors Bachelor Degree (Four- Year).
• Minor module:
  • Comprised of 4.0 or 5.0 courses designated by a Department, Faculty or Affiliated University College. A degree with a single Minor is not available. A Minor may be combined with another Minor in a Bachelor Degree (Three-Year) or a Minor module may be taken as an additional module within the Honors Bachelor Degree (Four-Year), the Bachelor Degree (Four-Year), or the Bachelor Degree (Three-Year).

Graduate

• Any degree or program currently approved by Senate which has not been previously approved by the Quality Council or its predecessor. 
• A “new program” is brand new; the program has substantially different program requirements and substantially different learning outcomes from those of any existing program offered at Western. 
• A new master’s of doctoral program (e.g., introduction of a PhD Program in Film Studies). 
• A new professional master’s program in an area where Western already has a thesis/research-based master’s program (e.g., introduction of a MA in Professional Writing).

Undergraduate

• Any degree, degree program, or specialization currently approved by Senate which has not bee previously approved by the Quality Council or its predecessor. 
• A “new program” is brand new; the program has substantially different program requirements and substantially different learning outcomes from those of any existing program offered at Western. 
• A new program is a program consisting primarily of new courses offered predominantly by new faculty members who are recruited to provide the program area expertise previously lacking at Western. In addition to the need for new faculty members, new programs also require additional resources, such as space and library collections. 
• A new program could be:
  • A new degree program (e.g., BHSc – Bachelor of Health Science).
  • A new disciplinary program (e.g., BSc in Oceanography).
  • A new module, if the module has requirements and learning outcomes that are substantially different from those of any existing module.