Graduate Council

Informational Items Update:

• Distinction between professional and graduate programs discussion with Curriculum Council.
• Next week: discussion of transfer credit and residency polices.  Please read the documents ahead of time.

1.  Applied Ethics MA/MS #103431 – Change Graduate Major

• Proposal
• Required Course of Study/What’s the Difference Between an MA-Applied Ethics and MS-Applied Ethics?
• The Graduate Council reviewed this proposal last spring and sent it back requesting distinct learning outcomes for the MA and the MS degree. The file listed above is in response to that; please review the file.  

2.  MA/MS in Communication # 99706 – New Degree Program Proposal

• Proposal
• MA Level Assessment Table
• Since the Graduate Council sent this back in October, the results from the external review and a response to the request to differentiate learning outcomes between the MA and MS have been uploaded.
• The Graduate Council reviewed this proposal and sent it back in late October with this guidance:

“The program identifies the difference between obtaining an MS or an MA degree as the requirement of two years of foreign language proficiency for the MA. Presumably, the language proficiency is needed for this Master’s degree, otherwise only the MS would be offered. But if MA students have required skills and knowledge that differ from MS students (as they should for different degree types in Communication) then the learning outcomes should reflect those differences as well. Please revise the learning outcomes and subsequent assessment to reflect differences in learning outcomes due to the presence or absence of two years of language proficiency.” 

• The response in the Curriculum Proposal System appears below:

“The differences in terms of the language proficiency would be found one of two ways. First, the MA student can show their proficiency through the grad school form when they are admitted to the program (and thus there is nothing specifically that they learn differently from an MS student during their time at Oregon State). Second, an MA student who has not fulfilled their language requirement can take 15 credits of non-English foreign language courses during their time at Oregon State to become proficient (getting at least a C in any of those courses). We have added a fourth learning outcome with this language to the learning outcome document. Note that MA and MS students would be taking the exact same courses and would do the exact same thesis proposal except for the possibility of the language courses (only if someone needs to earn the language proficiency element during their time at Oregon State).”

3.  Organic Agriculture #100609 – New Certificate Program Proposal

• Proposal
• Revised Proposal
• Response from unit to Graduate Council
• Since the proposal was sent back by the Graduate Council earlier this year, the program has revised the proposal and included a document to address the concerns raised by the Graduate Council. 

Future Topics

1. Transfer Credit Policies (residency, double/triple counting)
2. Review of Timeline for 10-year Graduate Program reviews
3. MA vs MS vs M-other learning outcomes
4. Review of Timeline for 10-year Graduate Program Reviews
5. Masters along the way