The Committee on Instruction (COI) must approve all new courses, as well as existing courses that have not been offered in five or more years, before they can be included in the College curriculum. You are responsible for submitting all relevant curricular material to the COI, including the appropriate forms for course proposals.
When the Course Management system has a proposed course ready for your review and electronic signature (as the course moves towards COI approval), you will receive an email. Please follow the email link to review the course proposal. You should review each one for accuracy and the inclusion of course requirements; course rationale; a detailed weekly course syllabus that includes the required readings for each week and that indicates the number of pages read from each text; a complete reading list; a full course description; a bibliography; and, in the case of an adjunct, visiting, or new instructor, a curriculum vitae. Course approval requests must be complete and electronically signed by the Director of Undergraduate Studies before the COI can review them.
In order for courses to be reviewed in time for registration and change-of-program periods, departments should adhere to the following schedule.
- 15 March – deadline to submit fall courses for the coming academic year in order to ensure they are approved in time for registration in April
- 15 October – deadline to submit spring courses for the current academic year in order to ensure they are approved in time for registration in November
- 15 November – deadline to submit summer courses in order to ensure they are approved in time for summer school registration in December
Faculty should begin preparing for these various deadlines by the end of September and should have their courses to you or the departmental administrator in time for you to review them before submitting them to the COI.
Once a course is approved by the COI, the course should be scheduled with the Registrar.
All questions about new course proposals raised by the COI will ordinarily be directed to you for clarification.
For detailed information about preparing new course proposals, please see the webpage Proposing a New Course, and a guide to be posted shortly. Please contact Lisa Hollibaugh, Dean of Academic Affairs, at 851-9814 or at lkh5@columbia.edu, with any questions that you may have.
Link to Course Management
Please contact the Committee on Instruction Staff at cc-gs-courses@columbia.edu
if you have any questions.