All Graduate students are required to declare their graduate/professional certificate through the Graduate Student Portal (MyGradPortal) in MyUW. Not completing the declaration process means students will not be considered as enrolled in the program by data offices on campus, even if they are taking courses that meet program requirements. The university has a policy on program review for Low-Award Producing Programs that includes graduate/professional certificates. If a certificate appears to have few students enrolled, it may then be considered low-award producing and be subject to the policy, including the triggering of a program review and potential discontinuation. The data visualization Trends in Degrees and Related Data may contain useful information for certificate programs. 

Through the MyGradPortal, students can indicate their intention to add, change, or discontinue a major, doctoral minor, or graduate/professional certificate. When a Graduate student indicates the intention to add a graduate/professional certificate, the credential coordinator, and sometimes director, will receive an email notification to accept or deny the student.  If the student is accepted, a notification will be sent to the Graduate School, and the graduate/professional certificate will be added to the student's record in the Student Information System (SIS).  If the student is denied, the student will receive an email notification.

**Please note, only Graduate students (those in majors within the Graduate School) can declare credentials via the MyGradPortal.  Professional students (Law, Medicine, Pharmacy, and Veterinary) are not able to access the portal, and therefore, the program coordinator must accept and declare them through the process established by the Registrar's Office.  Certificate coordinators should visit this KB on how to create a professional school code for a graduate/professional certificate and become familiar with SIS-Managing Student Programs, Plans, and Sub-Plans from the Registrar's Office. These are instructions, including screenshots of SIS, for how to correctly declare students in a certificate.

Certificate coordinators must contact Kipp Cox in the Graduate School each term with a list of students who have completed the certificate requirements so that the award will appear both on the student's transcript and in university reporting data. Following the declaration process above does not automatically lead to students being awarded the certificate.  Graduate/professional certificates are not "stand-alone" credentials, meaning they are not awarded upon requirement completion.  They are conferred when the full degree is conferred.

All graduate/professional certificates are required to submit at least one learning outcome and a learning assessment plan to the Provost's Office annually. This should be an effort led by the faculty in each certificate. More information about learning outcomes and assessment plans can be found here. 

The Graduate School keeps a program/unit directory that programs are expected to update as there are changes in staffing. The directory includes a Search by Minor/Certificate section that includes all graduate/professional certificate contacts (as well as capstone certificate and doctoral minor contacts). Instructions for how to update the directory can be found here. If you do not have access to edit your certificate's contact page, please contact the Graduate School's Unit Directory contact.

Programs interested in creating a new certificate, suspending admissions to a certificate, or discontinuing a certificate should be directed to the Graduate School:

Jenna Alsteen

Assistant Dean, Academic Analysis, Planning and Assessment

608-890-2291