New Course Proposals

The college curriculum council must review and approve any course that:

  • is new;
  • has not been taught in five or more years before being reactivated; or,
  • has been changed in content (i.e. changed in ways that might result in a substantially different course from the one originally approved).

Please use this form to submit a course proposal to the college council:

Additionally, proposed undergraduate courses at the 1000, 2000, and 3000 level that will also be submitted for inclusion in the Common Curriculum (CC) must be approved by the college council before being submitted to the General Education Council.

Please complete the appropriate forms that are associated with the requested CC requirements and submit to the college council. Note that each type of CC requirement has its own proposal form. Once the course has been approved by the college council, it will be forwarded to the General Education Council for review.

Policy on Credit Hours: The unit of measure for the valuation of courses is the credit hour. Based upon the federal definition of a credit hour, each credit hour requires one hour of direct faculty instruction and a minimum of two hours per week of preparation on the part of students, for approximately 15 weeks a semester. Most courses are valued for three credit hours, i.e., three contact hours per week and at least six hours of preparation. For three-credit-hour courses deployed via different course types, modes of delivery, or calendars, total number of direct contact hours should be equal to or greater than 45 hours, with the total out-of-class work equal to or greater than 90 hours. Courses that deviate from this standard must provide documentation illustrating how the number of contact hours and/or work outside the course equate to this standard within the term in which the course is offered. (SMU Catalog 2017-2018 forward)

Advice/Clarification on Above Credit Hours Policy: Please be mindful of the language of the federal definition while working with the simple formulae below for a standard 3 credit hour course. SMU’s 50-minute classes are accepted as 1 hour. Similarly, 80-minute T-TH sessions are accepted as 1.5 hours. 3 hour sessions count as 3 hours even though there is a brief break in the middle of those classes.

  • 15 weeks x 3 hours = 45 contact hours
  • 15 weeks x 6 hours = 90 out of class hours
  • 15 weeks is inclusive of finals

If you have questions about course or program proposals, please contact Karen Jung in the Academic Affairs office: 214-768-2691 or kkjung@smu.edu.

Undergraduate and Graduate Council Meeting Schedule

Last updated on April 29, 2024.