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1. Approval begins with the Faculty Council.
2. Next, an external reviewers site visit is conducted (see About the site visit section below).
3. The Department/School responds to the external reviewers report.
4. A Provost re-assessment will be conducted, if necessary.
5. The AQuE Office submits the new program for approval at SUC/SGRC.
6. The new program is then submitted at Senate for approval.
7. Finally, the new program is submitted to the * and ** for approval.

*The program is permitted to advertise the new program to students with a an approval disclaimer. See below.

**MCU approval can take upwards of 6 months.

A site visit by arm's length external reviewers is conducted for the review of all new programs going through the standard approval process.

Site visits are conducted by a team of two external appraisers and an internal participant (i.e., support person) who is a faculty member at the University of À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ. The internal support person accompanies external reviewers on the site visit. They are selected by the AQuE office from outside of the Faculty housing the program and are not expected to have any specific knowledge of the program under review. Their responsibility is to translate UW jargon, provide UW context (e.g., strategic priorities at UW etc.), and answer general questions the reviewers may have. An internal support person does not contribute to writing the reviewers’ report.

The external reviewers will meet with the Program Director/Chair, Provost (for Grad and augmented programs), Dean, Associate Dean, AVPA/AVPA-GSPA, AQuE office staff, as well as faculty, staff,  potential students (if available), and academic support unit representatives. The process is coordinated by the AQuE office.

External reviewers are provided with an honorarium for their work.

Virtual site visits are the standard. They are typically conducted over 5 days (Mon-Fri.).

AfterÌý³Ù³ó±ðÌýNew Program Proposal has been submitted to the Quality Council, the AQuE Office will notify the Department/School that they may begin to advertise the new program. However, any announcements or ads must contain the following statement:

"Prospective students are advised that offers of admission to a new program may be made only after the university's own quality assurance processes have been completed and the Ontario Universities Council on Quality Assurance (Quality Council) has approved the program."

In addition, the following text must be including when referring to applications for the new program:

After obtaining QC approval, and if the program is still awaiting Ministry approval, the above disclaimer can be replaced with the following one: