Course Approval Process
Graduate Faculty Senate (GFS) meets monthly during the academic year. An agenda item during each meeting is dedicated to reviewing and approving new and revised course proposals. No courses will be approved during the months GFS does not meet.
Follow the link below to access the Curriculum Inventory Management (CIM) system. You will be directed to log in using your MU username and password. If you have questions about the system, contact muregistrarcatalog@missouri.edu. More details are provided on the Registrar’s website.
Once in the system, you can propose a new course or edit a course. Course deactivations are managed through the edit a course option. Courses will follow a systematic process of approvals, including approval by the Graduate Faculty Senate and the Dean of the Graduate School. Only deleted courses do not require approval by the Graduate Faculty Senate.
Topics Courses
Topics courses may be submitted to the Registrar’s office without prior approval by the Graduate Faculty Senate. The Senate urges that programs and departments teach courses only up to five times prior to seeking permanent course status.
The Graduate Faculty Senate does not exercise formal control over the topics courses that graduate programs propose. For topics courses at the graduate level, please email ourschedule@missouri.edu to submit specific topic title. If the course is cross-leveled (4000-level/7000-level), you will still need to complete an Undergraduate Proposed Topics Form for the undergraduate portion. No courses, including topics courses, can be cross-leveled between professional and graduate (5000/7000 or 5000/8000).
Graduate Faculty Senate Course Approval Process
Phase 1: Course Approved from School or College
School/College verifies that proposal conforms to GFS policies for graduate-level courses.
Common problems/issues at this stage:
- Grading scale includes a “D”
- Cross-level courses do not explain additional course work for 7000-level
- Lack of information on how course compares to existing offerings at MU
GFS may roll course back to department/program at any level for lack of compliance.
Phase 2: Course Under Review by GFS Academic Affairs Committee (GFS-AAC)
GFS-AAC will look for:
- Appropriateness of title and content from the department/program
- Issues of duplicate coursework from other departments/programs
Issues here could delay approval of course. The GFS-AAC Chair will contact department/program if there are not enough affirmative votes from GFS-AAC.
Phase 3: GFS-AAC Chair Review
The GFS-AAC Chair reviews votes and comments from the GFS-AAC.
Courses at this stage have the minimum number of affirmative votes from the GFS-AAC. The Chair reviews comments pertinent to the committee. The Chair may need to confer with department/program or roll course proposal back to unit.
Phase 4: GFS President Review
The GFS President will approve courses after they have been voted on by the entire senate.
Courses at this stage in the process will be voted on at the next regularly scheduled GFS meeting. Barring any issues from the floor, the course will move forward to the final step of the process shortly after the meeting.
Phase 5: Dean of the Graduate School Review
Dean of the Graduate School (or designee) conducts a final review of the course.
Courses at this stage in the process typically move through quickly. The Dean reserves the right to roll back a course for any issue, including those not yet considered by GFS.
Process last updated 9/2/21