Last year, university announcement that from the academic year of 2025-2024, students in the promotion of 2025 will be authorized to continue minors' programs, revising and increasing to existing certificates of the university.
In the announcement, the dean of the college Jill Dolan explained that this change will always focus on “preservation exactly what concentrations and certificates are already doing”.
The concentrations will also be called majors, to “align with other establishments in higher education”.
Although the “certificate” and the “minor” have been used interchangeably by students and teachers for years, they mean slightly different things outside the university.
Dolan explains how the change takes place to better match the language used outside in other institutions.
“One of the problems with our” concentrations “and our” certificates “is that, although they are unique in our landscape, and people learn what they mean, they do not translate well outside of Princeton,” said Dolan.
What really changes?
The current program allows students to choose a concentration, equivalent to a major in other colleges, with the possibility of “focusing” more on a specific part of their respective fields. Students can pursue certificates by following additional courses and by carrying out additional independent work or integrating their certificate subject in their thesis.
According to existing directives, certificates must Be interdisciplinary – a requirement that will not be imposed on minor programs.
The 54 existing certificate programs are able to revise their study programs and submit approval proposals to meet the requirements for minors' programs.
The beginnings of this language change can be seen at the admission office websitewhich lists both, but does not provide a distinction between the two.
Of the 54 certificates and 36 university concentrations, the majority already meets the new requirements of the program, detailed below, to become a minor. In addition, other concentrations and certificates will suffer an examination and a realignment with the new requirements in the coming years, which will probably lead to the creation of new minors.
Students can expect some minors to be available next year. Others will need more time to align with new requirements.
The university plans to leave the certificate programs of graduates in their current format.
What are the requirements?
As part of the new University Studies program, students will be authorized to complement two minors, although petitions to the deans of residential colleges can allow three or more. Minimum course requirements For a minor, the faculty committee on the study plan, made up of around five to seven courses and potentially independent work. These changes should also be reflected immediately in transcriptions.
Princeton's certificate program was already more equivalent to the fact that other colleges can call a minor, rather than the certificates offered in other institutions.
Other Colleges and UniversitiesMinors can only be continued by students in a committed diploma program. They are generally considered a secondary diploma, with a higher workload than a certificate program. In other establishments, however, certificates can be continued regardless of the status of a student as a “diploma search” or “non-degree research”.
Like current princeton certificates, minors from other universities generally require additional work, such as independent research. Due to the rigorous nature of minor programs in other universities, they often have to be declared relatively early in the university career of a student. Certificates in other institutions generally only require the completion of a series of courses, and many can be declared at any time by anyone.
Dolan explained how “(E) stabilize an official program of minors and invite certificate programs to align with the new model will bring more coherence to the landscape of secondary studies in Princeton”, allowing the reality of the workloads of certificate programs to reflect on student transcriptions.
Jasmyn Dobson is an editor for the “prince”.
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