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Catalog/Curriculum Revisions & Approval

Academic unit faculty, in consultation with college deans and the Provost’s Office, are responsible for developing curriculum and recommending/requesting changes or proposing new courses and/or programs. Curriculum offerings are published annually in the University Catalogs.

The Office of the Registrar is responsible for keeping the UNC Catalogs and related systems (e.g., Banner registration and Degree Works) updated with an accurate record of approved curriculum as well as housing documentation of required approvals for all curriculum and catalog changes.

The Office of the Registrar provides detailed forms to gather final catalog details and signatures of approvers required by university regulations. These forms are housed in an electronic workflow system, tied to UNC’s online catalog, through Watermark’s Curriculum Management software. Below you will find details related to catalog deadlines, workflow submission details, and other helpful information for academic units that are requesting catalog revisions.

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2023-24 Catalogs Available

The 2023-2024 catalogs are now available online. Please select "Print Version" in each catalog if you wish to order a bound copy or download the PDF version. 

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2024-25 Review Catalogs Available

The draft 2024-2025 catalogs are now available online. Approved changes are updated on an ongoing basis in the review catalogs.

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Questions? Get in touch.

Email Catalog.Help@unco.edu for assistance.

  • Reference & Training Materials

    Catalog/Curriculum Workflow Help

    Reference Documents

    Curriculum Handbook

    Program Development & Revision

    Course Development & Revision

    Related Websites

    Insight Reports / Course and Program Coding Help 

    Course Coding and Information 

    • To view all active courses and all of their Banner data (e.g. codes, prerequisites, descriptions, restrictions, etc.), view the report CRS069 Course Catalog Report.
    • To view current course default codes (e.g., division, department, organization, taxonomy, and CIP codes), view the report CRS049 SCACRSE Default Codes.
    • To check if a particular course number has been used within the last 10 years, view the report CRS042 CRS Ten Years.
    • To view current courses coded as Variable Titles and all of the current approved titles, view the report CRS085 Variable Title Courses.

    Program Coding

    • To view program code information (e.g. department, org, division, taxonomy, etc.), view the report CRS057 CIP/Department/Taxonomy Codes for Curriculum Review.
    • To view coding of current programs (e.g., program codes, major/concentration codes, and minor codes), as well as associated department and CIP codes, view the CRS062 Curriculum Guide.

    Transfer Guide Templates

    Use the below templates for transfer guides for each community college. 

    UNC & Community College Transfer Guides

    Please email completed transfer guides or questions to catalog.help@unco.edu

  • Catalog Deadlines

    Office of the Registrar Catalog Deadlines

    NOTE:  To allow sufficient lead time for staff in the Office of the Registrar to process and publish all curriculum submissions, all respective workflow submissions must be in the Provost/Grad School queue on or before the Catalog Deadlines listed below. 

    Curriculum Workflow Chart

    Check with your College Dean's office for college-specific deadlines. Please keep in mind curriculum revisions should be discussed/determined in advance of submitting the forms for final approval in the workflow and must be approved by the academic unit first. In some cases, particularly new academic program proposals, additional steps are required (see Reference and Training section above). 

    Course & Program Updates

    Deadline: Workflow items must be in the Provost queue by December 31, 2023

    All new, revised, and deactivated courses and programs should be submitted by this deadline.

    Spring Addendum

    Deadline: Workflow items must be in the Registrar final queue by November 1, 2023

    Only NEW courses and programs may be submitted for the Spring Addendum catalog. New courses/programs effective for Summer should also follow this deadline.

    Faculty & Narrative Updates

    Deadline: Workflow items must be in the Registrar final queue by March 1, 2024

    Faculty and Narrative updates are non-curricular catalog changes.

    Special Council Deadlines

    NOTE: Use these earlier deadlines to ensure proposals have time to be reviewed by Liberal Arts Council (LAC) and Professional Education Council (PEC), if applicable. 

    Check with your College Dean's office for college-specific deadlines.

    Professional Education Council (PEC)

    Deadline: see PEC Website

    PEC approval is required for revisions that affect programs in teacher preparation.

    *Deadlines vary - see PEC website for all deadlines. This deadline is the final deadline for review of courses/programs for the catalog. 

    PEC Website

    Liberal Arts Council and Guaranteed Transfer Pathways

    Deadline: November 1, 2023

    LACouncil approval is required for new courses seeking inclusion in the LACurriculum, and revised courses that currently fulfill LAC requirements. LAC courses are also reviewed for inclusion in the state's Guaranteed Transfer Pathways program.

    LAC Website

  • Submitting Catalog Changes

    Catalog/Curriculum Workflow

    The catalog/curriculum workflow is an electronic system used to gather approvals for the finalized catalog details for courses, programs, and narrative (non-curricular) catalog entries. The workflow is used typically as the final stage of the curriculum approval process outlined in University Regulations. Certain changes, particularly new academic program proposals and new or major course changes, require additional work prior to (and after, in some cases) submitting the forms for approval in the workflow. 

    Please refer to University Regulations, your unit leader, college dean, or the Provost's Office for guidance on the full curriculum approval process and see the "Reference and Training" section for related curriculum resources.

    When ready to submit forms for catalog changes, you will open the workflow to get started. Please note that access to the New Program Form is granted only upon completion of appropriate steps outlined in the Academic Program Proposal Template.

    Access & Logging in 

    Access to the Catalog/Curriculum Workflow can be found in URSA under the Employee tab > Employee Tools > General Information > Curriculum Strategy. You will use your UNC credentials to login to the system.

    • If you are a faculty or staff member who creates and submits proposals, you will have this basic access with your UNC login. You will be able to view and track the proposals you submit.
    • If you are an approver (Chair/Director, Committee Chair, Dean, etc.), your access should have been requested by your College. Please contact your supervisor and/or College Dean's Office regarding your college or department's review process.

    Submissions for Minor Catalog Updates

    To facilitate expedited review and updates for non-curricular and non-content requests (such as formatting, spelling/grammar, or contact information), please email catalog.help@unco.edu to request changes to the catalog. Whenever possible, submissions should be included on forms in the Catalog/Curriculum Workflow and follow standard catalog deadlines.

    Please note that while we can make updates in the online catalog through this process, only those submitted by the Narrative/Faculty Deadline (March 1) are guaranteed to be reflected in the printed catalog for the upcoming year.

    Eligible updates include:

    Contact information updates

    • Department contact name, website URLs, physical location, phone/fax/email
    • Removal of faculty/staff names upon death or termination from university (other faculty changes should be submitted via narrative/faculty forms in workflow)
    • Department/College name on Course Prefix pages

    Formatting updates

    • Updates to the order of courses within a program (that do not alter requirements), e.g., reordering for proper alphabetical order 
    • Re-order of program sections (that do not alter program requirements)
    • General formatting, spacing or heading issues

    General corrections

    • Spelling, grammar, punctuation corrections that do not alter meaning
    • Broken or incorrect URLs/links to replace with correct link
    • Request to correct information inputted incorrectly by mistake (revisions to previously approved/correct content should go through curriculum approval)
  • Reviewing/Tracking Catalog Submissions

    Tracking and Reviewing Workflow Proposals

    Review Catalogs

    The Review Catalogs are draft versions of the catalogs for the next academic year, and they will be updated as changes are approved. If your submission is listed in "Archived Proposals" in the Catalog/Curriculum Workflow and/or you've received the email noting your proposal(s) have been approved, you should see the changes reflected in the Review Catalog.

    Tracking Workflow Proposals

    In-Progress Proposals 

    Throughout the process, you will be able to track proposals as they navigate through the workflow. You will see all in-progress proposals in the "Curriculum Dashboard" tab. The Dashboard will allow you to search and filter.

    The "My Items" tab will show items that are in your workbox for approval or saved as a draft by you. For example, if you are the Chair of an academic department, any proposals that need your approval will be housed here. Be sure to click the workflow stage in the upper left underneath the tabs to toggle between different stages you may have access to.

    Approved Proposals

    To view approved proposals in the workflow system, navigate to the "Archived Proposals" tab. Proposals will appear here after final approval is given. In the top left corner of this tab, select the catalog year the proposal(s) were submitted for, or select "Denied Proposals" for denied items. It will default to the upcoming catalog/current curriculum cycle. 

    View the final form by clicking on the name of the proposal. The proposal will allow you access to:

    • The full, final form that was approved including all course/program data as it should appear in the Review Catalog.
    • The "Compare Versions" option, which will give a visual showing of what information was updated during the process.
    • The "Audit Trail" which will show the proposal's progression through the workflow, including who submitted, approved at various steps, and any comments placed by users during review.
    • Any attached documentation (course syllabi, four year plans, etc.).

    Previous Catalog/Curriculum Submissions

    The Office of the Registrar Curriculum Tracker spreadsheet is no longer used to store and track updates each year for catalog revisions. For information on catalog/curriculum proposals submitted for the 2019-20 catalog and earlier, please contact CatalogHelp@unco.edu.