Academic Senate

The Self-Supporting Graduate Professional Degree Program (SSGPDP) Advisory Committee of the Graduate Council supports innovation and creative approaches to graduate education. The committee is available to advise and help proponents in designing programs, especially those that are innovative and those that are interdisciplinary, and assist in strengthening proposals towards a smooth review process with subsequent councils and committees. The committee looks forward to meeting with interested units and faculty. 

Units who actively worked with the SSGPDP Advisory Committee had their proposals approved at UCLA and systemwide in about a year. Before establishing the committee and guidelines, proposals have taken, on average, two to three years to move through the divisional and systemwide Senate review process once formally submitted to the Graduate Council. The Master of Applied Statistics took 47 months to be approved. The Doctor of Nursing Practice took 26 months to be approved.    

Recently approved SSGPDP proposals include:

• Master of Healthcare Administration (online) (approved by UCOP within 8 months of formal submission)
• Master of Quantum Science and Technology (approved by UCOP within 11 months of formal submission)
• Master of Applied Chemical Sciences (approved by UCOP within 7 months of formal submission)

Proposal Development

Note: Most Senate governing bodies do not meet during summer break. 

We encourage interested faculty and units to schedule a preliminary consultation early in the ideation process to discuss the process and available resources.  A fully developed program or concept is not necessary to have a meeting with the SSGPDP Advisory committee members. 

Please contact Emily Le, Committee Analyst, to meet with the committee. For the committee membership and meeting schedule, click here. 

Self-supporting graduate professional degree programs allow the university to 1) serve additional students above and beyond those supported through resources provided by the State, and 2) fulfill demonstrated higher education and workforce needs. 

Please review and carefully follow the Guidelines for the Development of New Self-Supporting Graduate Professional Degree Program Proposals and the Guide to Graduate Program Approval. Refer to the Proposal Resources section below for guidelines and proposal templates. 

The committee can review drafts of the proposal throughout this stage. 

Once the proposal has undergone Department and College/School FEC review, please formally submit the complete proposal to the Graduate Council for consideration via email to Emily Le, Committee Analyst.

SSGPDP Proposal routing and approval workflow