Our aspiration to be a preeminent and innovative public research university requires our program offerings to be responsive to university strengths and priorities and to changing intellectual interests and social needs. Consequently, we are open to strategically evolving our portfolio of programs. A part of this evolution may require suspending and terminating graduate programs.
This page describes the administrative process for suspending and terminating an academic graduate program (a credit-bearing degree that appears on official university transcripts upon completion of degree requirements).
Definitions:
The University of Oregon is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU). NWCCU uses the following definitions to define a program’s status, and these terms will be used in this document.
- Moratorium – means to pause enrollment for incoming students in a program, with the idea that there is potential to begin re-enrolling students in the program at a future date (less than five years). A phase-out plan is required.
- Suspending – means to cease enrolling incoming students into a program with the express intent to terminate the program at the conclusion of phasing out existing students enrolled in the program. A phase-out plan is required.
- Terminating – means there are no longer students enrolled in the program, and the program will be closed indefinitely. This is the end step to program suspension after all enrolled students have graduated or left the university. A phase-out plan is required.
An academic program may be evaluated for suspension or termination using these criteria:
- Congruence with the mission and priorities of the University, the college, and the department, and interrelatedness with other University programs,
- Need and demand for the program,
- Graduates securing work after graduation that is aligned with their graduate degree training or area of study,
- Comparative advantage over similar programs offered elsewhere,
- Efficiency, effectiveness, and use of resources in support of the program,
- Program quality and assessment.
Procedures for placing a moratorium on graduate program admissions
The school/college dean or designated leadership discusses the moratorium with the vice provost for graduate studies and shares a phase-out plan as required by NWCCU (as described below).
Suspending a graduate program:
The processes for suspending a graduate program are:
- The school/college dean or designated leadership shares data informing a potential program suspension with affected program faculty and seeks their input on any factors the dean may have missed.
- The school or college dean, or a designated leadership representative, discusses the potential suspension and seeks input from the vice provost for graduate studies.
- The school/college dean, or designated leadership representative, shares data informing a potential program suspension and phase-out plan with the Graduate Council and seeks Council members’ input.
- The school/college dean or designated leadership member submits a proposal for suspending an academic program to the vice provost for graduate studies for review.
- The vice provost for graduate studies evaluates the suspension plan and provides final approval. The earliest that the suspension can take effect is the fall after the proposed suspension plan is approved by the vice provost for graduate studies.
Phase-Out
After an academic suspension plan has been approved by the vice provost for graduate studies, the program enters a phase-out period. Phase-out plans should allow students currently enrolled in the program and who maintain continuous enrollment to be allowed to complete the program in a reasonable amount of time. Planning for phase-out is specified in the proposal for suspending an academic program webpage.
Program specific time-to-degree limits, Division of Graduate Studies time limitations, and satisfactory academic progress policies will still apply. Units should considermodifications to degree requirements for these students to enable them to complete their degrees, such as course substitutions.Students currently in the program should be notified that the program is phasing out, and that if they stop out of the program, there is no guarantee they will be able to resume study. Colleges can tell students about similar graduate programs into which they can transfer but cannot require students to transfer out of the phased-out program.Once all enrolled students have either completed the program or left the university, the program will be considered “terminated” and the Office of the Provost will update its status with the NWCCU.
Approved by Office of the Provost: March 6, 2026