The Department of Education (ED) wants to ensure that students in graduate programs are earning credit for graduate-level work and that federal financial aid is going to support work toward a graduate degree. In its charge to carry out the ED rules, our accreditor, the Higher Learning Commission, has called on institutions to create policies that will “distinguish the various levels of learning that the institution offers, such as graduate and undergraduate, and may distinguish among departments or disciplines.”
Graduate programs will continue to abide by the policies set out in the Graduate Handbook of the DePaul University Catalog. In addition, to ensure that graduate programs are appropriately distinct from undergraduate programs in the same or a related discipline, all graduate degree programs will include the following:
- A core of courses that is offered solely at the graduate level, supported by a written rationale for the content of the core.
- Course syllabi, including learning outcomes and assignments appropriate for graduate-level coursework. Any graduate courses that are cross-listed with undergraduate courses must have separate syllabi for each side of the cross-list, with distinct learning outcomes and assignments for each group. Undergraduate courses must be at the 300-level or above to be cross-listed with a graduate course.