Curricular Justification

Justification Best Practice

The curricular justification provided with each submission serves to inform reviewers at each stage of the process. A strong justification allows stakeholders to evaluate the necessity, impact, and relevance of the proposed course or program and supports informed decision-making throughout the curricular review workflow.

Effective curricular justifications are:

• specific and evidence-based,
• focused on student learning and student success,
• aligned with departmental, university, accreditation, or workforce needs, and
• written for reviewers who may not be familiar with the discipline.

Strong justifications explain not only what is changing, but why the change is necessary and how students and programs will benefit.

Justification Questions

• Why is the course or program needed at this time?
• What specific problem, gap, or opportunity does this proposal address?
• What curricular, workforce, accreditation, assessment, or student success need prompted the proposal?

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Adding Curricular Justification to a Proposal

There is a Justification text box in both CIM (courses) and PIM (programs). The Justification text box is available when adding or editing a course or program, and is one of the first text boxes on the form.

All proposals must have curricular justification in the Justification text box. Proposals can also include attached justification documents for additional information, approvals, or documentation.

Proposals without strong justification may be rolled back to the proposer before it is moved through the approval workflow.