How are New Majors and Minors Created at AUBG?

For the last few years, AUBG has introduced several new academic programs, such as majors in Psychology and Physics, a minor in Creative Writing, and others. Faculty is paying close attention to students’ wishes and is working towards satisfying their demands.

But how are those programs created and what are the steps to establish them? These and other related questions will be explored further.

So, how does it happen?

Creating a new major and creating a new minor have two different processes. There are several steps, which include a proposal from the department, discussion within a curriculum committee (which also includes a student representative), and voting by an all-faculty assembly. The introduction of a new major has an additional step, which is approval from AUBG’s Board of Trustees. According to Investopedia, “The board of trustees is typically the governing body of an organization and seeks to ensure the best interest of stakeholders in all types of management decisions.”

Robert White, Dean of Faculty at the university, explains that “in order for the curriculum committee and faculty assembly to actually consider the proposal, the department has to do a comparison between AUBG and other institutions.” They also have to conduct a survey among students to see whether there is interest and prepare a list of potential courses.

This applies to creating majors/minors within existing academic departments. For example, if the faculty decides to offer a minor in Environmental Studies, it will be part of the Mathematics and Science Department. Conversely, if the proposed program does not coincide with any department (an Engineering major for instance), then the Dean’s Council must approve the proposal before it goes to the Curriculum Committee. In it, all the chairs of the departments meet and discuss the possible benefits of a new program.

What factors are considered when determining the feasibility of a new major/minor program?

“Two things really – student demand and the financial viability of the program, which are related,” White says. “There is a difference between a program that draws upon existing resources versus one you have to hire new people.”

Minors are low-risk programs because they are usually a package of existing courses and faculty.

For new majors that don’t draw upon existing resources, “it does require hiring new people, because it involves creating new courses, though not so often.” In fact, some of our majors exist because of the General Education program, such as the Literature one. Since the courses and the faculty were already there because of the Textual Analysis general education requirement, there weren’t any additional costs in order to establish the major.

For entirely new majors, which will need a whole new curriculum of courses and professors, “we have to make sure that there is demand for the new program because it costs money to hire new faculty,” White adds.

In order to do so, surveys are made among the students, though they might not be so effective in the predictions. “It is easier for students to click on an option in a survey and saying that this program would benefit them, rather than actually completing the courses for it,” White explains.

The word of mouth is usually a better indicator of whether the demand is high. In most cases, the faculty learns that there is a call for a new program when they hear that there is an increased interest among the students. In such situations, the risks of creating one are lower, because the costs will be proportionate to the actual demand.

How is the success of a new program measured?

The biggest indicator of success is the number of students who enroll in the new program, but the cost must be considered again.

Let’s take the recently introduced Physics major. In terms of enrollment, it is not very prosperous, but from a cost point of view, there is no loss, since it was created from an existing department. Psychology, on the other hand, is a very flourishing major, as the cost for it is proportional to the student demand.

There are also circumstances where a given program has low demand for it, such as the case with the American Studies major. It was not successful among the student body and had to be removed eventually.

Are there any new majors/minors in the making?

The most recent minor, which was introduced at the beginning of Fall 2022 semester, is Creative Writing. It is an “interdisciplinary program appropriate for students who wish to study both the practical and theoretical aspects of creative writing.” The program offers not only Literature courses but Journalism ones as well, thus complementing the majors in each of the departments.

One major that has been approved by the Board of Trustees but still goes through development is Film and Creative Media. According to Professor Sean Homer, the chair of the Literature and Theater Department, those programs require a lot of money, as film equipment needs to be bought and filming and editing studios need to be built. “Things are progressing, but they are progressing slowly because the costs are high,” Homer explains.

Another new academic program in the making is a Tourism and Hospitality concentration within the Business Administration major. As of now, the department is still in search of new professors who can teach in this specialty and as soon as they find such, the concentration will get started right away.

Anything else?

Taking everything into consideration, one can conclude that such creations take time. As Professor Laura Kelly, the chair of the Journalism and Mass Communication Department, says, “Academia is a slow-moving ship. There are a lot of things at stake. There’s lots of talking, planning, debating, speculating… All perspectives are considered. So, decisions are made that hopefully are solid.”