10.9   COOPERATIVE ACADEMIC ARRANGEMENTS

The institution ensures the quality and integrity of the work recorded when an institution transcripts courses or credits as its own when offered through a cooperative academic arrangement. The institution maintains formal agreements between the parties involved, and the institution regularly evaluates such agreements. 

JUDGEMENT                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Compliance     Non-Compliance     Partial Compliance

NARRATIVE

The University has one consortium agreement, the Greater Greensboro Consortium, and two Joint Degree Programs, the Joint Master’s degree and the Joint PhD degree in Social Work, that result in credit earned elsewhere being recorded as its own.

Greater Greensboro Consortium.  Students taking classes through the Greater Greensboro Consortium receive institutional credit for coursework completed at one of the other local institutions in the agreement.   The most recent agreement indicates that the “HOST CAMPUS supplies all grades through its Registrar to each HOME CAMPUS.  All grades and enrollments are recorded at the HOME CAMPUS”.  As part of this agreement, academic and administrative evaluation of each registration request is require.  Students must receive the approval of their advisor, their department chair, and their dean, as well as the home institution’s Registrar, in order to take the course and receive institutional credit for it.  Specifically, the department chair is responsible for reviewing the course offered at the other institution and determining an institutional equivalent that can be awarded to the student upon successful completion of the course.  Further, students must receive approval from the other institution to take the course there, and this review includes whether there are seats available in the desired course and whether a student registering from another campus meets the criteria for the method or manner of instruction. The request form, with all the appropriate signatures is transmitted to the host institution.

Joint Graduate Programs in Social Work with UNC Greensboro. The Joint Master’s and Joint PhD degrees in Social Work are offered in a partnership with the University of North Carolina at Greensboro UNCG (a SACSCOC accredited peer institution in the UNC System).  The agreements direct the student’s home institution to “maintain the official transcript” and to “use coursework completed at the home institution and at the host institution through consortial registration in computing the overall GPA.” Additionally, the host institution agrees to send final grades to the home institution and the home institution converts these grades to the nearest comparable equivalent in computing the “official final GPA.

The agreement requires a high level of coordination between the campuses; for instance, campus services, with a few fee-based exceptions, are available to all students, regardless of home campus designation (Article IV) and an Inter-University Coordinating Council works together on matters of policy and resources (Article II). There is a single Program Director with a joint appointment (Article I); and, all faculty in the program are credentialed at both institutions (Article V).

In accordance with the agreements, each student in the program takes classes at both N.C. A&T and at UNCG each semester.  These course sections are not marked as consortium on the transcript, but the section location on the class schedule indicates where the class meeting is hosted.

Supporting Documents

1. Greater Greensboro Consortium Agreement

2. GGC Form for Enrolling in Consortium Courses

3. Joint Masters in Social Work Approval Letter

4. Joint PhD in Social Work Approval Letter

5. Joint Master’s Degree in Social Work Agreement

6. Joint PhD in Social Work Agreement