The Illinois Board of Higher Education has the statutory responsibility for approving new units of instruction, research, public service, and administration. All programs and units must first have received approval by the institution's governing board. A unit of instruction is an organized program of study whose completion results in the formal conferral of a certificate or degree. Units of administration include colleges, schools, divisions, departments, centers, and institutes that carry out the instruction, research, and public service work of the university. Formally organized research and public service units are usually called centers or institutes.
An objectives-based program approval process has been developed. This process shifts the focus in evaluating whether or not the request meets approval criteria from examining "inputs," such as faculty and student sufficiency, equipment and library resources, and budget to determining congruence between the unit's objectives (goals) and the measures of their achievement (outcomes).
A Request for Approval requires a description of program or unit objectives and, in the case of instruction, student learning objectives. For each objective, the request must also include corresponding outcome measures--that is, one or more measures the university will use to show that the program or unit achieved its objective(s) and, for instruction, that students, indeed, attained the knowledge, skills, behaviors, and/or attitudes (i.e. the learning objectives) proposed. In addition, each request needs to show how the program or unit will build upon the university's strengths and focus its mission, how the program or unit will be financially supported, and how the program or unit contributes to achieving statewide goals. New doctoral program applications submitted will continue to be reviewed by two outside consultants.
Once a program or unit is approved, the university is required to submit a progress report three years after implementation, as part of the university's annual results report. The progress report needs to demonstrate the extent to which the program is achieving each objective defined in the original request for approval. Programs that are not making progress toward achieving these objectives will be asked to submit an improvement plan.
Requests for new units will be accepted by the Illinois Board of Higher Education at any time. However, a request for a new unit that requires new resources for its implementation will only be considered during the fall budget development process and, thus, must be received no later than September 1st.
For convenience, there are two separate applications: one requesting approval of a new unit of instruction, which may be offered on and/or off-campus, and the other requesting approval of a new unit of administration, research, and/or public service.