Standard Number 3.6.3: The majority of credits toward a graduate or a post-baccalaureate professional degree is earned through the institution awarding the degree. In the case of graduate and post-baccalaureate professional degree programs offered through joint, cooperative, or consortial arrangements, the student earns a majority of credits from the participating institutions.

Full Compliance

Furthermore, a student pursuing a graduate degree at Georgia Southern University who plans to take graduate courses at another institution as a transient student must complete a Graduate Student Transient Permission Form , which must be approved by the advisor or major professor and the College of Graduate Studies prior to enrolling in the transient courses. This procedure ensures that courses taken as a transient student at another institution will constitute a part of the planned program of study. Students who take courses without prior approval are doing so with the possibility that the course may not count in the degree program.

The Ed.D. in Curriculum Studies (see 2004-2005 Undergraduate and Graduate Catalog , p. 279) stipulates that up to 27 semester hours of applicable and appropriate post-master's work may be applied toward degree requirements with the approval of the student's Candidacy Committee Chair. This degree program requires a total of 63 semester hours beyond the master's including the dissertation (54 semester hours excluding the dissertation). Therefore, 36 of the 63 semester hours must be completed at Georgia Southern or 64% of the total credit hours required. The Ed.D. in Educational Administration provides for course credit for work done toward an education specialist degree up to a maximum of 36 semester hours, provided that course work was completed in a timely manner from an accredited institution authorized to offer the education specialist degree in Educational Administration/Leadership (see 2004-2005 Undergraduate and Graduate Catalog , p. 277). This program requires 75 semester hours beyond the dissertation (66 semester hours excluding the dissertation). Consequently, students enrolled in this program must complete 39 semester hours or 52% of the credits at Georgia Southern.

In addition to the above programs, Georgia Southern University also participates in the WebMBA Consortium . The WebMBA program is a two-year, lockstep, Internet-based, ten-course program offered through a five-university consortium (comprised of Georgia Southern University, Georgia College and State University , Kennesaw State University , Valdosta State University , and the State University of West Georgia). Enrolled students take all of their program courses through these five universities, all of which have an MBA program accredited by AASCB International—the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

The University also participates in a collaborative with Armstrong Atlantic State University (AASU) for the delivery of an external doctoral program in Educational Administration. According to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), the degrees—master’s, education specialist, and education doctorate—will be one part of a total initiative delivered collaboratively by the two institutions. AASU will serve as the lead institution in the delivery of a master’s degree in education and/or a related area that will provide the foundational understanding upon which the education doctorate will build. AASU will grant the master’s degrees. No more than one half of the required master’s courses will be offered by each of the collaborative institutions. Electives will go to the school that offers courses selected by the student to fit his or her approved program. The education specialist and education doctorate degrees will be granted by Georgia Southern University and will be collaboratively delivered at the Coastal Georgia Center. AASU may offer six of the concentration courses for each student’s approved program. Under Article III of the MOU, students in the program must follow the same admission requirements and program guidelines governing the Ed.D. as it is administered on the Georgia Southern campus. Hence, this requirement ensures that the majority of credits will be earned from the collaborative institutions.