Curriculum Development - Graduate

Graduate programs tend to be departmentally based, and each graduate program committee is normally responsible for a single graduate degree, or set of linked programs (e.g. the Graduate Diploma in Market Research and the MSc in Marketing and Consumer Studies).

Graduate program committees are normally chaired by a faculty member who is appointed as the graduate program coordinator for a graduate program by the Chair of the department responsible for the graduate program. Membership of graduate program committees includes faculty members teaching in the program (and thus also members of the Faculty of Graduate Studies), and graduate student representatives currently registered in the program. Any student representative(s) are elected by the graduate students or named after consultation with the graduate students in the relevant academic unit.

Graduate program committees are responsible for curriculum management related to their specific degree programs and their responsibilities include:

• Regularly reviewing program curriculum;
• Initiating or responding to proposals for curricular change
• Developing program-level intended learning outcomes
• Overseeing the progress of students in the relevant graduate program(s). 

All departmentally-based graduate program committees report to a ‘division committee’ of the Board of Graduate Studies. These inter-disciplinary sub-committees reflect the diversity and array of graduate programs currently offered at Guelph with division committees responsible for the humanities; the social sciences; human and animal sciences; plant sciences; and physical sciences.  Membership of each Division Committee consists of the Graduate Coordinator or designate for each of the graduate programs identified under that Division. The division committees are responsible for the review of new program proposals or significant revisions to existing programs, and provide the opportunity for interdisciplinary input and recommendations regarding the addition, deletion or amendment of graduate programs and courses, prior to formal consideration by the Board of Graduate Studies and Senate.  

For more information about requirements for program approvals and modifications, please review the Graduate Studies website here.