Policies and Guidelines for Undergraduate Minors

Policy Number: EP-05.02

Effective Date: Approved by the UIC Senate on December 2, 2004

Policy Title: Establish Policies and Guidelines for Undergraduate Minors (view the full SCEP proposal)

Contact: Academic Programs

Policy Statement: Policies for undergraduate minors

  1. Any academic department or unit may propose to create a minor with the approval of its college.
  2. A formal proposal listing the requirements of the minor must be submitted for Senate approval. The Senate Committee on Educational Policy will review all proposals for minors and make recommendations to the Senate for approval.
  3. The sponsoring unit will set the criteria, if any, for admission to the minor.
  4. Students must apply to the sponsoring unit for admission to the minor if such admission is required.
  5. If the minor is offered by an academic unit outside the student’s home college (college of registration), it is the student’s responsibility to seek approval of the home college, if required, to count the minor course work toward the student’s degree.
  6. The successful satisfaction of the requirements for a Senate-approved minor will be acknowledged on the student’s official University transcript as part of the awarding of degree listing.

Reason for Policy: The purpose of this policy is to establish a set of guidelines and policies which sponsoring units can use to develop undergraduate minors and which the Senate Committee on Educational Policy can apply as proposals for new minors are presented for approval.

Who Should Read the Policy: Faculty and staff at UIC who are involved in the creation, revision, or elimination of undergraduate minors.

Procedures: To create, revise, or eliminate an undergraduate minor, refer to the minors section on the Academic Programs webpages.

Guidelines for undergraduate minors Heading link

  1. A minor is defined as a coherent program of study that requires some depth in a subject but is less extensive and requires fewer courses than a major.  A minor broadly introduces a student to a field of study while a concentration focuses on a subfield within the discipline.
  2. A minor may be attached to more than one major (i.e., “floating”) either within or across colleges, as defined by the sponsoring unit. Some colleges offer independent minors that are not housed in a particular department. Examples include the Gender and Women’s Studies minor and the International Studies minor in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
  3. Hours requirement. The minor should consist of at least 12 but no more than 21 hours of coursework. Prerequisite coursework does not count toward the required hours for the minor. Colleges are permitted to set a higher minimum than the 12 hours.
  4. Advanced hours requirement. At least 6 hours of the minor should be in advanced level course work (200-level or above).
  5. The department sponsoring the minor may establish prerequisites for admission to a minor.
  6. A college or department may rule that a student is ineligible to complete a minor where there is significant overlap with the student’s major.
  7. Grade point average. A student must earn a minimum grade point average of 2.00 (A=4.00) for all course work taken at UIC and all course work counted toward the minor (transfer + UIC).  Colleges are permitted to establish a higher UIC minimum grade point average for course work counted toward the minor. Colleges may also drop a student from a minor for failure to maintain or achieve the minimum required grade point average.
  8. Residency requirement. A student must complete at least one-half of the coursework required for the minor field in residence at the University of Illinois at Chicago.