Graduate Certificates
The University of Oregon offers a number of graduate certificates in specific academic and professional subjects. Students pursuing graduate certificates must be admitted to the university, but are not required to be degree-seeking.
Admission Process
In order to pursue a graduate certificate, a student must be admitted to the University of Oregon as a graduate level student, either in a master’s or doctoral program or, in the case of a stand-alone certificate program, as an admitted graduate certificate student.
The admission process is specific to each certificate program. To get started, the student should contact the program offering the graduate certificate.
Students pursuing both a graduate degree and a graduate certificate concurrently must complete and submit a graduate certificate declaration form within one term after being accepted by the certificate program.
Students pursuing only a graduate certificate do not need to complete the declaration form and instead apply via the online admission application.
Financial Aid and Graduate Certificates
Students pursuing a standalone graduate certificate (that is, without also being concurrently enrolled in a graduate degree program) may not access federal financial aid unless the graduate certificate program has been individually approved as Title IV aid-eligible.
Contact the program offering the graduate certificate to find out if it is offered as a standalone certificate and is Title IV-aid eligible.
Important Information about Pursuing and Completing a Graduate Certificate
Graduate certificates consist of a minimum of 24 credits of graduate-level coursework taken at the UO. Specific course requirements are established by the certificate program.
UO graduate coursework taken prior to acceptance into the certificate program may count toward certificate requirements, with approval from the department offering the certificate.
However, to be considered, such coursework must have been completed as an admitted graduate student in one of the following classifications:
- Conditional Master’s
- Master’s
- Conditional Doctoral
- Doctoral
- Pre-master’s
- Post-master’s
- Postbaccalaureate Graduate
- Admitted Non-Degree Graduate
Graduate certificate students are subject to the following general policies governing satisfactory progress:
- Continuous enrollment
- Minimum three-credit registration each term
- Maintenance of a 3.0+ cumulative GPA
- Completion of the program within seven years.
- Note: The seven-year time period begins with the first course being used to meet certificate requirements.
- Maintaining satisfactory progress/good standing
Graduating with the Certificate
To earn the certificate, students must apply for graduation by the deadlines listed on the Division of Graduate Studies website. The program that administers the certificate must also approve the graduation request to confirm that the student has met all program-level requirements.
New Media and Culture Graduate Certificate
The New Media & Culture Certificate for graduate students blends scholarly research on new media topics with hands-on experience creating new media content and using digital research tools. In conjunction with the multitude of creative opportunities made available by existing degree programs across campus, the certificate can be completed through courses spanning the criticism, history, aesthetics, and production of new media technologies.
Program Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this program, students will be able to:
- Frame their own research projects through the lens of prominent theoretical analytics for the study of new media in its social, cultural, and technical contexts.
- Describe the specificities of the methodological approaches undergirding their own research projects.
- Compare the methodological approaches they take for the study of new media and/or legacy media with other possible methodological approaches.
- Situate their own new media research within a broader landscape of topics, themes, debates, and research programs in new media and culture.
- Specify the particular topical commitments and thematic threads informing their own research work concerning new media and/or legacy media.
Certificate in New Media and Culture Requirements
This multidisciplinary program offers exposure to an array of approaches to the study of contemporary new media topics such as social media, digital surveillance, gaming culture, and the social significance of data analytics through review of the history, theory, criticism, aesthetics, and production of new media technologies. Students blend scholarly research on new media topics with practical experience creating content using digital research tools.
The certificate program is open to graduate students in any UO department or program. Students must complete a minimum of 24 credits in approved courses. Among these, 12 credits must
come from a series of required core courses: one course (4 credits) in Theories and Histories of New Media
(this is known as the core Common Seminar required of all NMCC students); one course (4 credits) from
the list of methods courses, and one course (4 credits) from the list of Topics courses. The remaining 12
credits are devoted to electives. At least 8 of the 24 credits must be taken outside of the student’s home department or program. For more information, including course offerings for the coming year, visit the certificate website.
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Common Seminar | 4 | |
| Choose one: | ||
| Histories, Theories, and Cultures of New Media | ||
| Experimental Course: [Topic] (Histories and Theories of New Media) | ||
Or other equivalent course | ||
| Methods Course 1 | 4 | |
| Topics Course 2 | 4 | |
| Electives 3 | 12 | |
| Total Credits 4 | 24 | |
- 1
Actual course offerings change year to year. See NMCC website for sample course listings. Students may also petition to substitute other relevant courses.
- 2
Minimum 4 credits in Topics courses. See NMCC website for sample course listings. Students may also petition to substitute other relevant courses.
- 3
Minimum of 12 Elective credits. Students may choose Elective credits from any of the pre-approved NMCC course listings in Electives, Methods, or Topics. Pre-approved Electives include a robust portfolio of production-oriented classes as well as a range of thematic courses related to new technologies. Alternately, students may create customized study plans by pursuing the following options:
- Students may petition to substitute other relevant courses for courses on this list if considered germane to an individual student’s program in new media and culture. For example, a course on the topic of Copyrights (LAW 667) would be considered relevant to an Art History student’s research on contemporary appropriation art. See NMCC Petition Guidelines.
- Students also may petition to have non-new media courses count toward the Electives requirement if the majority of the student’s research in the course involves the production of new media content (websites, databases, blogs, digital arts, creation of new digital tools, etc.). For example, a course on Orientalism (COLT 562) in which the student created an interactive website on the topic of Edward Said could count toward the certificate in the Elective category. See NMCC Petition Guidelines.
- 4
At least 8 of the 24 credits must be taken outside of the student's home department or program.