The University of North Carolina's Academic Program Development Procedures defines a "degree program" as "a program of study in a discipline specialty that leads to a degree in that specialty or in some designated subdivision of the specialty at a particular level of instruction." It defines "degree program track" as "a variation of an existing degree program which leads to a degree in the same discipline specialty at a level of instruction but differs in its specific course content."
Each proposed new degree program or program track, and each proposed programmatic or curricular change in an existing program must be reviewed and approved at the departmental or program and college or school levels prior to submission to the Administrative Board of the Graduate School [4.2.3.1]. Upon recommendation of the ABGS, programmatic and curricular changes in existing programs must be approved by the dean of the Graduate School. After the dean approves the proposal, she forwards the request for new programs to be planned or established and for new program tracks to the provost, who sends them to the University of North Carolina General Administration [4.2.4.9].
Proposals to plan for new degree-program tracks must be approved by the president of the University of North Carolina system. Proposals to plan new degree programs must be approved by the president (upon recommendation from the UNC Graduate Council, which consists of the graduate dean and faculty from the campuses of the UNC system that offer graduate degrees), the Committee on Educational Planning, Policies, and Programs of the UNC Board of Governors, and finally the UNC Board of Governors. After approval to plan is received, a proposal to establish the new degree program must be developed and processed through the same steps as the proposal to plan [4.2.1.1; 4.2.1.2; 4.2.4.8; 4.2.4.9].
A proposal to plan a new degree program in the University of North Carolina System requires the following information: [4.2.1.3]
During the past five years, initiatives for new graduate degree programs and program tracks have included the Doctor of Philosophy in Counselor Education, the Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Research and Policy Analysis, the Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy in Immunology, and the Master of Accounting. These new initiatives support interdisciplinary or interdepartmental programs that reflect the traditional scientific and technological strengths of NCSU and its mission as a land-grant university.
Unlike most public universities, where graduate students appointed to research and teaching assistantships, fellowships, and traineeships are considered to be residents of the state for tuition purposes, The University of North Carolina system requires all nonresident graduate students to pay tuition at the out-of-state rate even if they hold an appointment (see table 6.3).
The state does, however, provide the universities with a limited fund to remit the nonresident tuition for some of the assistantship or fellowship holders. According to "University of North Carolina Administrative Memorandum 181," dated July 17, 1983, tuition remission may be awarded to "nonresident graduate students who serve as a graduate teaching assistant or research assistant or in a similar instructional or research assignment, and who are paid a stipend of at least $2,000 per academic year." The memorandum also charges each institution with the responsibility of developing written procedures for granting tuition remission, keeping a formal record of the award of fellowships and assistantships that make the student eligible for tuition remission, and keeping all necessary documentation in one central office.
At NCSU, these responsibilities are charged to the dean of the Graduate School. The graduate dean's award of tuition-remission money was originally made in proportion to each college or school's number of eligible students. Since that time, each year the colleges and schools are guaranteed at least 95 percent of their allocation of the previous year. Adjustments are made according to the proportion of the previous year's utilization of the allocated funds. Unused funds available at the end of the year as a result of colleges' or schools' not spending their allocation are pooled and distributed to those overspending their allocation. After all surplus funds have been reallocated, each college or school is responsible for its remaining deficit.
Prior to fall 1986, NCSU had 425 FTEs of tuition remission for graduate students (FTE = 9 hours per semester). In fall 1986 this number was increased to 515 FTEs. The number of FTEs for which tuition remission is awarded has not increased since fall 1986 despite the fact that enrollment in graduate programs at NCSU has increased by 28 percent. For the period July 1, 1993, to June 30, 1994, the amount was $3.63 million.
The insufficient tuition-remission fund causes graduate education at NCSU to suffer in two ways. First, at the recruiting stage NCSU is less competitive for outstanding out-of-state students. Higher-quality students, other things being equal, prefer to enroll at institutions that can waive tuition or (in the case of public institutions) at least set it at the in-state rate. Second, to avoid paying the high out-of-state rates, students do not always register for full course loads even if they are in fact full-time students. In many cases this practice occurs with the full knowledge and support of advisors and directors of graduate programs, who are trying to make the limited tuition-remission funds allocated to the department go as far as possible. But the result is that the true level of graduate activity, as reflected in graduate enrollment, is under-reported, and NCSU appears to be a part-time graduate university.
Tuition waived
University All Out-of-state None
------------------------------------- ----- -------------- ----
North Carolina State University X
Peer national universities
--------------------------
University of California-Davis X
Cornell University X
University of Illinois X
Iowa State University X
Michigan State University X
University of Minnesota X
Ohio State University X
Oregon State University X
Pennsylvania State University X
Purdue University X
Texas A&M University X
University of Wisconsin X
Tuition waived
Regional universities All Out-of-state None
--------------------- ----- -------------- ----
Auburn University X
Clemson University X
University of Georgia X
Georgia Institute of Technology X
University of Florida X
University of Tennessee X
Virginia Polytechnic and State University X
In fall 1992, 1,623 of the 4,389 graduate students registered at NCSU were officially full-time students, i.e., were registered for nine hours or more. The remaining 2,766 were registered for fewer than nine hours, and therefore were officially part-time students. These data are the official full-time/part-time enrollment data reported by the University, and published in such publications as the Council of Graduate School's A Profile of Graduate Institutions (1992). When, however, a survey of directors of graduate programs asked the directors to identify each enrolled student as full-time or part-time, 3,076 were reported to be full-time and 1,377 part-time.
Another result of the insufficient tuition-remission fund is that in some semesters students take course loads that are not in their best interest academically in order to pay minimum tuition. The Graduate School currently allocates the tuition remission dollars as fairly and efficiently as possible, but available tuition remission is simply not adequate to cover the needs.
Recommendation 6.2: As a long-term solution to the tuition-remission problem, NCSU should treat all graduate students appointed to teaching and research assistantships, fellowships, and traineeships at or above a certain minimum level of support as North Carolina residents for tuition purposes.
Recommendation 6.3: As a short-term solution to the tuition-remission problem, NCSU should give a high priority to allocating existing resources and identifying new resources to pay nonresident tuition for students eligible for tuition remission, but not covered by current tuition-remission funds.
For several reasons, the actual cost difference between providing graduate and undergraduate education is much greater than 33 percent. First, graduate courses are smaller than undergraduate courses (the University requires a minimum of five students in a graduate course and ten students in an undergraduate course). Second, graduate education requires substantially larger investments in laboratory, computer, and library resources than undergraduate education. Third, graduate students require more one-on-one time with faculty advisors than undergraduate students, especially during thesis and dissertation preparation.
Given the importance of graduate education to fulfillment of NCSU's mission, financial support for graduate education should reflect the distinctive character of graduate education. Current funding formulas are too low to reflect adequately the amount of time faculty must invest in excellent graduate education.
Recommendation 6.4: NCSU should seek additional funds to increase the level of support for graduate education to a level that promotes excellence and the achievement of preeminence.
A fall 1992 survey conducted by the Infrastructure Subcommittee of the Investment in Graduate Education Committee determined that more than half of NCSU graduate students classified as part time were actually working full time on their degree requirements. Even more important, a significant number of students were not registered at all, and thus were not counted even as part-time students. The primary reason for this situation can be traced back to NCSU's tuition-remission policy. Advisors and students want to conserve tuition-remission funds so that as many eligible students as possible can receive part of the limited funds. But students trying to sidestep the tuition-remission policy are not the only culprits; even in-state residents register for the fewest number of credits allowable, which in some cases is zero, to avoid paying even the lower in-state tuition. The net result is that the official enrollment figures for both full-time and part-time students in graduate programs at NCSU are much lower than the actual numbers of students studying on campus.
Recommendation 6.5: NCSU should change its registration policy so that the official enrollment of graduate students reflects more accurately the true number of full-time and part-time students engaged in graduate study on the NCSU campus in any semester.
Recommendation 6.6: NCSU should establish a program to provide centrally awarded, institutionally supported fellowships awarded on the basis of excellence.
In accord with its Mission Statement, in 1991 NCSU requested permission from the UNC General Administration to plan doctoral degree programs in English, history, and public administration. Such programs would have complemented the University's current doctoral-degree programs in the technical and applied fields, and in the natural, social, and life sciences. Permission was denied on the grounds that the programs proposed would constitute duplication of existing programs and that the programs proposed would be inappropriate, given NCSU's mission.
NCSU believe, however, that expansion of its doctoral programs in the social sciences and establishment of doctoral programs in the humanities are in keeping with the evolution of land-grant universities nationwide. Omission of these program hinders NCSU's effort to fulfill its mission of service and realize its aspirations to institutional preeminence. From the perspective of NCSU's faculty, doctoral programs proposed in 1991 represented distinctive new programs, not duplicated elsewhere in the UNC system (see self-study library, Doctoral Program in the Humanities and Social Sciences at NCSU, for a full discussion of these issues).
The rejection of proposals for doctoral programs in English, history and public administration hinders NCSU's development of distinctive research fields that would enrich NCSU's traditional strengths. Faculty-research programs in the humanities and social sciences at NCSU have already laid the groundwork for innovative work, and NCSU's strengths in the technologies and advanced research in the humanities and social sciences can complement and enrich each other.
NCSU's 1973 self-study established the principle that "the broader goals of the modern University cannot be attained without excellence in the natural and social sciences and in the liberal arts." NCSU should persist in its efforts until the right combination of pedagogically sound doctoral programs and supporting justification are found to give NCSU the comprehensiveness it needs to join the mainstream of research-oriented land-grant universities and exhibit the array of doctoral programs characteristic of preeminent American universities. The dean of the Graduate School, the provost, and the chancellor should support and encourage such program development, aid in the development of appropriate justification for such programs, and advocate effectively for their approval by the UNC General Administration.
Recommendation 6.7: NCSU should support and encourage the faculty and departments in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences in developing proposals for new graduate programs, especially at the doctoral level.
A second principle established by the 1973 self-study was that "effective approaches to new and complex (interdisciplinary) problems require recombination of skills traditionally found in widely separated administrative units of the University." In this area, there has been dramatic development in the past twenty years at the graduate level. NCSU now supports some forty-four centers, institutes, and laboratories for innovative interdisciplinary research and scholarship, involving 338 faculty members and 643 students. There are as well a number of interdisciplinary graduate programs, notably in physiology, nutrition, ecology, immunology, and liberal studies. Here, as is often the case, the sciences have provided leadership in the reorganization of disciplines to meet new challenges and address new concerns.
Nevertheless, the opportunity remains for NCSU to develop more imaginative and innovative graduate programs, either within current disciplinary structures or through newly organized combinations. NCSU is now poised to offer interdisciplinary programs in areas that represent some of the most active and vital intellectual trends in current scholarship: gender studies, science, technology, and society, cultural studies, rhetoric and composition, communication along the electronic highway, public policy, etc. Opportunity exists for creative interdisciplinary activity both in areas of NCSU's traditional strengths in technology and applied fields and in areas of newly emerging excellence in the arts and sciences.
New interdisciplinary programs should draw on core disciplines with well-established methods and research traditions but challenge traditional disciplines to diversify disciplinary methodologies or approaches to advance our understanding of knowledge and heighten the University's ability to respond creatively to both perennial and newly emerging issues and challenges. Through support for interdisciplinary activity, NCSU can transform its tradition of combining basic scholarship with socially relevant applied research into the kinds of scholarly methodologies that will characterize preeminent research universities of the future.
One aspect of NCSU's professional culture works to retard this development. There is wide perception among the faculty that interdisciplinary work is undervalued. Faculty believe that interdisciplinary work does not carry as much weight in professional career decisions as does work in a primary discipline.
Recommendation 6.8: NCSU's Graduate School should devise flexible administrative mechanisms for interdisciplinary-program development so that faculty will have forums in which to do collaborative research and platforms from which to develop programs.
Recommendation 6.9: NCSU should affirm the value of interdisciplinary activities to ensure that faculty who engage in interdisciplinary activity are appropriately recognized.
Recommendation 6.10: NCSU should allocate resources to new programs without reducing excellence in existing programs.
