Abstract
Universities want to encourage faculty to keep curricula up-to-date and innovative, yet faculty dread the prospect of arguing about course and program changes with college and university curriculum committees – which are overworked and overwhelmed with detail. The Course Challenge Procedure (CCP) at the University of Saskatchewan is a collegial yet autonomous way for peer review and approval of new courses, and pre-requisite and program changes. It encourages more faculty members to be informed about curricular changes in other units, yet also allows for faster approval. The CCP can be implemented as a web-based, email, or paper distribution system, and used as the basis for integrated curriculum approval processes at the department, college, and university level.
Highlights
My method to overcome a difficulty is to go around it. - George Pólya (1887–1985)Former US President Woodrow Wilson is reputed to have said “it is easier to change the location of a cemetery than to change the school curriculum.” Many faculty would likely agree – they would rather tackle the cemetery, whose occupants cannot object.Universities want to encourage faculty to keep curricula up-to-date and innovative, yet faculty dread the prospect of arguing about course and program changes with curriculum committees – which are themselves overworked and overwhelmed with detail
At the University of Saskatchewan, many curricular changes are being approved by the Course Challenge Procedure (CCP)
The CCP is used for fast approval of new courses, course deletions, pre-requisite changes, and program changes (Fornssler, 2008)
Summary
My method to overcome a difficulty is to go around it. - George Pólya (1887–1985). Former US President Woodrow Wilson is reputed to have said “it is easier to change the location of a cemetery than to change the school curriculum.” Many faculty would likely agree – they would rather tackle the cemetery, whose occupants cannot object. At the University of Saskatchewan, many curricular changes are being approved by the Course Challenge Procedure (CCP). The CCP is used for fast approval of new courses, course deletions, pre-requisite changes, and program changes (Fornssler, 2008) It incorporates peer review of these curricular changes, while respecting the authority of colleges and departments in managing their own curriculums. This university procedure encourages more faculty members to be informed about curricular changes in other units, yet allows for faster approvals. Under the academic decision-making structure, which was followed from 1912 to 1995, every curriculum change, no matter how minor, had to be approved by a university committee When this system was established, the university had only 50 faculty; by 1995, with 900 faculty, this course approval system was creating exhaustion and gridlock. The information contained in the University Calendar related to course and program listings should fully and fairly set out what the University can promise to its students
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