Policy On Cross-Level Listing of Undergraduate/Graduate Courses

Approved by the Senate: September 12, 2025
Revision: Every five (5) years
Responsible Officer: Vice-Principal Academic and Research

I. Scope

This policy applies to all credit-bearing courses.

II. Definitions

Cross-listing refers to the practice of offering one course under two or more course codes, e.g. ECO 175/ESG 175 – Economic Geography. Students may enroll through either course code and take the same course.

Cross-level listing refers to offering two courses, one undergraduate and one graduate, in the same time and place, generally with the same professor. However, for cross-level listing, only the classroom experience is shared; the graduate course is expected to have distinct content and learning outcomes that are more advanced than the undergraduate course and identified in a separate syllabus.

III. Policy Statement

Although normally undergraduate and graduate courses are separate and distinct from each other, there are circumstances in which academic departments may wish to teach certain graduate and undergraduate courses together. This policy provides explicit guidelines for offering cross-level listed courses and distinguishes these offerings from cross-listed courses.

In general, academic departments are encouraged to offer distinct undergraduate and graduate courses. However, when cross-level listing of graduate and undergraduate courses is deemed appropriate, academic departments must adhere to the following guidelines. The general principle is that the course content for the undergraduate and graduate level courses must be sufficiently similar to warrant cross-level listing, yet both the quantity and difficulty of the work completed by graduate students should exceed that of the undergraduate students.

a. Only upper-level undergraduate courses (3xx and 4xx) and lower level-graduate courses (5xx and 6xx) may be cross-level listed.

• Cross-level listed course pairings must not be more than two levels apart. That is, 300-level courses may pair only with 500-level courses, while 400-level courses may be cross-level listed with either 500- or 600-level courses. Exceptions to this policy are rare and must be approved by the Senate Planning Committee.
• 700- and 800-level graduate courses cannot be cross-level listed with undergraduate courses, except in special cases such as colloquia, special seminars, individual research projects, etc. If courses are listed in this manner, the professor or department must provide additional justification and receive approval by the Senate Planning Committee.

b. Cross-level listing of courses must be approved by Senate Planning Committee.

• Departments can request course cross-level listing by completing the New Course Proposal or Course Modification forms. The greater quantity and difficulty of work complete by graduate students should be explained in these forms.

c. Specific and distinct syllabi must be provided for the undergraduate and graduate versions, outlining the specific and unique expectations for each course.

• Assessment measures such as exams, written assignments, computational exercises, etc. should delve more deeply into the content area and be more difficult or complex at the graduate level.
• The expectations and learning outcomes of each course must be commensurate with the level of that course. For graduate students, these expectations and outcomes must include more advanced learning through additional, more sophisticated reading, research projects, course facilitation and/or experiential activities. These expectations must be clearly differentiated from expectations of undergraduate students and must be clearly documented in the syllabus.

d. Prerequisites should be appropriate for both courses. Required knowledge should be the same or comparable for both courses, or more significant for the graduate course.

• A graduate course could require the same prerequisite as an undergraduate course, or, depending on the circumstances, a prerequisite might be required for only one level (e.g., either undergraduate or graduate). A graduate student, by virtue of having been admitted to a specific graduate program, may meet the prerequisite requirement automatically and be eligible to enroll.
• Use of the “permission of the instructor” restriction would allow for individual instructor discretion regarding a student’s preparation for the course content and may facilitate the verification of prerequisite knowledge and efficient enrollment.

e. Unlike cross-listed courses, cross-level listed courses are not coded as equivalent.

• A student can complete the undergraduate version for credits towards their undergraduate degree and complete the graduate version for credit towards their graduate degree.
  • Course titles must be related, but do not have to be identical, e.g. PSY 562 Advanced Qualitative Methods in Psychology is cross-level listed with PSY 462 Qualitative Methods in Psychology.
  • Course numbers do not have to be related, e.g. CS 560 Software Engineering is cross-level listed with CS 410 Software Engineering.

IV. Effective Date

• Date of Senate Graduate Studies Committee recommendation (mm/dd/yyyy): 09/15/2022
• Date of Academic Standing and Admissions Policy Committee Approval (mm/dd/yyyy): N/A
• Date of Senate Approval (mm/dd/yyyy): 09/12/2025