Process: Retiring and/or pausing admissions to credentials

Step 1: Co-operative system of study

Determine if the credential being retired has a co-operative system of study or not. If not, skip to Step 2.

If the credential has a co-operative system of study, consultation with the Faculty Relations Manager in Co-operative and Experiential Education is required. This consultation - and the result of it - will be required in the eventual retirement proposal documentation.

Step 2: Admissions

If the credential being retired is one of the following plans, skip to Step 3: a minor, option, specialization, or certificate. For degrees/majors and diplomas that can be unrolled in a non-degree or post-degree status, determine if the credential being retired has a direct-entry point of admission, meaning:

• it is in marketing brochures, and/or
• applicants use the Ontario Universities Application Centre (OUAC) to apply directly to the credential.

If it has a direct-entry point of admission, consultation with the admissions team in the Office of the Registrar is required. Reach out to the team to discuss timing of the closure and processes:

• André Jardin (associate registrar, admissions)
• Tatum Bizony (assistant registrar, admissions operations)
• Amelia Burton (assistant registrar, admissions)

Note:

• To pause admission to an existing direct-entry credential, the timing of the request must be considered as it is much more difficult and bad optics if students have been admitted:
  • Have the admission marketing materials been finalized? Brochures are typically finalized in May for the upcoming recruitment cycle for the following year's entry.
  • Is it past the time where admissions can update OUAC? OUAC information is typically updated in August for the upcoming admission cycle for the following year's entry.
  • Have applicants already started to apply to the program and no admission offers have been made yet? Offer letters typically can start to roll out as early as November for the following year's entry.

Step 3: Timing of student entry

Regardless if the credential being retired is a program or a plan, determine when the last cohort of students will be allowed to be admitted to the credential.

Step 4: Courses

Determine if students currently pursuing the credential will be impacted by the retiring of the credential.

• Are required courses for the credential still being offered until all students are through their respective curriculum or is there a need for a course substitution plan?

It is recommended to develop a multi-year chart of required courses to determine when they can last be taught, based on the students who are currently pursuing the credential. For diplomas and certificates, since current students pursuing a degree can't be enrolled in them, simply use a targeted close date.

A required course for the credential should not be retired via the governance approval path until the effective date of the last offering of that course has passed.

• For example, if the upcoming Calendar is for 2026-27 (all proposals are effective dated Fall 2026) and the course is needed until spring 2028, the earliest effective date to retire that course should be fall 2028. However, we only work on one undergraduate calendar at a time, so the academic unit should not bring forward that course for retirement until work begins on the 2028-29 Calendar.
• The governance committees should not see phased course retirements - with different effective dates- within a single effective-dated year.

Step 5: Communication considerations

After a credential has been approved to be retired, it will not disappear from whichever academic calendar is live at the time of approval. It is up to the academic unit offering the academic plan to communicate the credential's upcoming retirement to current students.

Academic units should be prepared to:

• Handle inquiries to be admitted (direct entry or plan modification) into the credential during the window until the retirement becomes effective (and is removed from the next publication of the Undergraduate Calendar).
• Handle inquiries to admitted (direct entry or plan modification) into the credential after the retirement becomes effective since it is listed in the Undergraduate Calendar the student is following.
• Create a group or individual-based advising plan for impacted students, especially if courses are being retired at the same time.

Step 6: Retiring the credential

A governance proposal is required to gain approvals to retire the credential. This work should be done in Kuali Curriculum Management (CM) during the window of effective dates for the upcoming Calendar publication to match the first year the credential will no longer display in the Calendar.

For example, if the credential is to no longer appear in the 2026-27 Calendar, the proposal should be submitted through the appropriate governance workflow path during the window of work for the 2026-27 Calendar (with a Fall 2026 effective date). If beyond that effective date, the academic should wait in case there are changes needed to the credential in the meantime.

See how to retire a record for the Kuali CM instructions.

Information critical for the proposal

• Rationale and background: Beyond explaining the reason the credential is being retired, include:
  • Details of the communications considerations (see Step 5). This is very critical information for proposals for retiring certificates and diplomas; students can't be enrolled in the certificate or diploma while pursuing their degree, so they can only be declared at the point of graduation. 
  • The last expected graduation (e.g., June 2026) for the credential (whether that is two, three, or four years in the future).
  • Available data. For example, how many students are currently in the credential.
• Consultations:
  • Include all the units who were consulted during the discovery phase (e.g., admissions, co-op, Manager, Curriculum Calendar).
  • Include all student consultations that took place prior to the proposal being crafted.