Course Proposals
All course proposals (new courses, changes to existing courses, course deletions) must be submitted into the CIM workflow no later than February 1st for such changes to be implemented for the upcoming academic year, which begins with the fall term.
Departments must create a catalog syllabus within the CIM proposal for all new courses that are submitted for approval. For more information, please review the UA Syllabus Policy.
Course descriptions should succinctly describe the content of the course and should be no longer than 5-6 sentences. Course descriptions should not be used to defend the existence of the course for review and approval purposes.
Departments may not reassign a previously active course number to another course with different content until at least five years after the previous course was offered.
Standalone zero-hour graded courses are not allowed.
Prior to the publishing of the upcoming catalog, the Office of the University Registrar will administratively deactivate any course that has not been offered with enrollment in the past five calendar years. In order for departments to offer these deactivated courses again, new course proposals must be submitted and approved in CIM.
Course Changes vs. New Course Proposals
Departments may not submit changes to a course that substantively and fundamentally alter the content of the course such that students attempting the same course in future terms would have significantly different learning outcomes than students who have previously completed the course.
In such cases, a new course proposal should be submitted. The Office of the University Registrar will evaluate such proposals on a case by case basis and may roll back course change proposals that involve the following:
- Major alterations to the course title and/or description
- Changes that significantly “broaden” or “narrow” the course content
- Credit hour increases/decreases
- Extensive revisions of prerequisites and/or restrictions in conjunction with changes to the title and/or description
- Changes to the Type of Instruction (Schedule Type) that are wildly unrelated (i.e. changing from “Activity/Performance/Studio” to “Research”)
Departments may update the course title and/or description to reflect changes to instructional methods and technology relevant to the course. Please utilize the Comments/Notes field within the CIM form to add explanation or clarification that reviewers may find helpful, which may serve to address potential concerns with the proposal based on one or more conditions as outlined above. For questions, email schedule@ua.edu.
Program Change Proposals
All program changes, excluding degree type changes, must be submitted in CIM for Programs. Different approval processes and timelines will result depending on the change being made to the program.
Curriculum changes resulting in less than 50% of the program requirements changing must be submitted into the CIM for Programs workflow no later than February 1st for such changes to be implemented for the upcoming academic year, which begins in the fall term.
Curriculum changes resulting in more than 50% of the program requirements changing must be submitted into CIM for Programs as a new program in consultation with the Office of Institutional Effectiveness (OIE).
For information on submitting curriculum edits to a program, please review this instructional guide.
Degree type changes cannot be submitted in CIM. Please contact OIE to initiate this process.
Program Name Changes vs. New Programs
- Name changes for concentrations, minors, and certificates cannot be submitted in CIM for Programs. Therefore, a separate new proposal listing the new name of the concentration, minor, or certificate must instead be submitted in CIM for Programs, along with the deactivation of the concentration or minor with the old name.
- Name changes for majors can be submitted into CIM for Programs under the following conditions:
- There are no curriculum changes to the existing program
- The major has existed for a minimum of seven years
- The major has not had a name change in the last seven years
- If any of the conditions above accompany the name change request, a new program proposal must be submitted in CIM for Programs, in consultation with OIE, and the old program must be deactivated in CIM for Programs.