Multiple Numbered Courses
Upon approval by the Graduate Council, courses numbered 400-599 may be double- numbered allowing undergraduate and graduate students to enroll simultaneously. All double-numbered courses may also be offered independently at either the graduate or undergraduate level. No course identified as an undergraduate Liberal Arts Core course may be double-numbered. At least two-thirds of a student's master's degree program must be in courses that are not double-numbered courses or in courses that have been taught solely as 500-level or above graduate courses.
The following guidelines will be utilized in the process of evaluating new course proposals involving multiple numbering:
- All programs requesting approval of multiple numbered courses must demonstrate in the rationale of the course proposal the academic value of and need for the proposed course in this format.
- In situations where a nongraduate degree program is seeking to include a multiple numbered course in its offerings that is intended to serve other units of the university, the requesting program must include supporting materials from those units.
- Nongraduate degree programs requesting approval of multiple numbered courses must demonstrate that the necessary expertise to teach the course exists in the faculty of that program.
- The practice will be to limit the number of graduate level courses offered by non-graduate degree programs. The specific number of courses will be determined on a case by case basis.
- All new requests for multiple numbered courses should try to pair a 500 level course with a 400 level course.
- Many course proposals are submitted with little or no distinction made in the qualitative differences between the graduate and undergraduate components of the course. It is the concern of the Graduate Council that the significant differences in this regard should be clearly articulated in terms of all aspects of the proposed course. It is considered insufficient to require graduate students to perform the same work as undergraduate students, but at a significantly higher level of accomplishment, without a clear delineation of those qualitative criteria. It is also considered insufficient to merely require a research paper/project of a brief nature, as the “graduate” component of the course. Therefore, all new course proposals must clearly distinguish, in the syllabus, the qualitative differences between the graduate and undergraduate components of the course. The significant differences in this regard should be clearly articulated in terms of expectation of outcomes, specific course content, course delivery, and evaluation of work.
Multiple numbered courses are generally discouraged on the grounds that the practice tends to limit the expectations of the graduate component of the course by grouping together undergraduate and graduate level students. While this may be seen to be challenging and advantageous to the undergraduate students, the concern exists that graduate students will not be presented with true graduate-level education because of “watering down” the content to meet the needs of the undergraduate students.