Certificate Programs Tracking

Joseph Glover, Provost and Senior Vice President

To conform to Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) accreditation requirements and data collection requests from the Board of Governors, we will begin tracking any University of Florida certificate programs for which students receive university credit.

The Board of Governors defines a for-credit certificate program as “an organized curriculum of college credit courses offered as a distinct area of study that leads to specific educational or occupational goals, and for which the university awards a certificate, diploma, or similar form of recognition upon completion. College credit certificate programs may consist of courses that are part of a degree program or distinct courses that are created outside of any degree program.” [BOG Regulation 8.011] The number of certificate program hours cannot exceed the number of credit hours established for a program major at the same degree level.

Any such organized, for-credit curriculum (including those taken by non-degree-seeking students and offered by self-funded programs) must be approved by the University Curriculum Committee (UCC) for undergraduate and professional Certificates or by the Graduate Council (GC) for graduate Certificates using the appropriate form on the approval system https://approval.ufl.edu.

All university for-credit Certificates approved through the process above must be reported by the UCC or GC to the Office of Institutional Planning and Research for inclusion in SACS compliance. Successful completion of these UF Certificates will be noted on the student transcript.

Any Certificates currently offered for UF credit must go through the approval process described above by December 31, 2012 in order to remain active. Organized programs of study that do not involve UF for-credit courses do not need to seek approval through this procedure. However, they may not be termed UF Certificates (for example, some Continuing Education programs/courses).

Any UF Certificates no longer offered must be closed by using the appropriate form on the approval system https://approval.ufl.edu.