Grand American University
Not yet enrolling

About

About the University

Purpose, governance and the online academic model of Grand American University LLC, a new institution designed for small-cohort online degree study. Not yet enrolling.

Legal identity

Who the University is

Grand American University LLC is a private limited liability company organised in the State of Utah (entity number 14718320-0160). Its full legal-identity statement, including its ownership, is on the Consumer Information page.

The University is being established as a private, online institution with no campus. It is a new institution: at the date of this page it has no students, no graduates and no history of delivering postsecondary education, and it says so.

Legal form
Private limited liability company organised in the State of Utah
Entity number
14718320-0160
Mode
A private, online institution with no campus

Mission and commitments

Purpose

The University's mission is to provide rigorous, research-informed degree education in business and management, education, and public administration and governance to working adults by distance, taught by qualified faculty in small cohorts, with honest public information about what the University is and is not.

  1. 01

    design before operating

    The first is to design before operating: every programme, procedure and standard has been written in full and recorded in a controlled register before any course is offered.

  2. 02

    stay small

    The second is to stay small: cohorts of no more than twenty-five, nine programmes, three subject families.

  3. 03

    describe the institution accurately in public

    The third is to describe the institution accurately in public, using the same controlled terms throughout its regulatory and student-information documents.

Governance

How the University is governed

The University's governance is designed to separate ownership from academic judgement.

The company's sole member holds the corporate powers. Academic standards are designed to rest with an Academic Board, examination decisions with examination boards and a Research Degrees Committee, and research ethics with an Institutional Review Board whose membership rules require scientific, non-scientific and unaffiliated members. A board of Governors including Independent Governors, an Independent Reviewer and External Adjudicators are designed to provide review that is independent of the owner and of the academic staff who took the original decision.

Each of these bodies is defined in the University's controlled documents; none is yet constituted, and appointments are recorded only when they have been accepted.

Defined in the University's controlled documentsAcademic and review bodies constituted — none
Ownership
The company's sole member

holds the corporate powers

designed to separate ownership from academic judgement
Academic judgement
Academic Board

Academic standards

Defined — not yet constituted
Examination boards and a Research Degrees Committee

examination decisions

Defined — not yet constituted
Institutional Review Board

research ethics
whose membership rules require scientific, non-scientific and unaffiliated members

Defined — not yet constituted
review that is independent of the owner and of the academic staff who took the original decision
Independent review
A board of Governors including Independent Governors

independent review

Defined — not yet constituted
An Independent Reviewer

independent review

Defined — not yet constituted
External Adjudicators

independent review

Defined — not yet constituted

Academic design

The academic model

Time and credit

Time and credit

16sixteen-week Fall and Spring semesters
8an eight-week Summer session
45One credit represents forty-five hours of expected student work

The academic year is designed around sixteen-week Fall and Spring semesters and an eight-week Summer session. One credit represents forty-five hours of expected student work. A three-credit course is modelled as about forty-five hours of instructor-led activity, sixty hours of guided reading and practice, and thirty hours of assessed work. Full-time and half-time routes have been designed for every programme, and every route has been checked for its calendar, its deadlines and its weekly workload.

The teaching week

a live session in a Mountain Time windowfaculty-moderated discussionreadingan activity or assessment

Each teaching week is designed to include a live session in a Mountain Time window, faculty-moderated discussion, reading and an activity or assessment. Live sessions are designed to be recorded and made available with captions within twenty-four hours.

Outcomes and assessment

Every programme states its learning outcomes; every course states which outcomes it develops and which assessment component assesses them. Assessment design is fixed in advance in each programme's design — components, weights, criteria and word limits — and will be published before any course runs. The assessment rules require marking against the published criteria, moderation, and written feedback within a stated period; results are designed to be confirmed through an Examination Board once it is constituted, with a defined route of appeal. The framework requires identity verification for live and timed assessment.

Academic integrity

Each assessment component in the programme designs states the level of artificial-intelligence assistance that will be permitted, from none to permitted with declaration. The academic-integrity procedure is a controlled draft intended to govern every course before teaching begins; it provides for review of its decisions by people who took no part in the original decision.

Research and projects

Research and projects

Bachelor's programmes end in a capstone inquiry; master's programmes in a supervised thesis; the doctorates in a dissertation examined by internal and external examiners after coursework and a qualifying examination. Under the University's research-ethics rules, research involving people may begin only after review and approval by the Institutional Review Board, within a defined scope that excludes research with anyone under eighteen; the Board is not yet constituted.

Support

Academic, technical and welfare support are designed with response standards, a route for reasonable adjustments, and a complaints procedure with independent stages, all of which will be published before any enrolment.

Quality

The quality framework requires programme approval before any programme opens, annual monitoring after teaching begins and periodic review, with external academic review as a condition of approval and advisory councils of external members for each subject family once teaching begins. No programme has yet been approved under that process. The framework also requires that every faculty member's qualifications be verified from the awarding institution before a course runs; this is a before-use requirement, and no faculty appointment has yet been made or verified.

Accessibility and privacy

Materials and platforms are designed to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA, and personal information is handled under a published privacy notice.

Current status

What exists today

Each of those steps is recorded as it happens; none is claimed before it happens.

Explore Planned Programmes Consumer Information
  • The University's academic and governance rules are complete in draft.
  • Its nine programmes are designed in full.
  • It has not yet been issued a registration certificate
  • has not adopted its rules as operating instruments
  • has not appointed faculty
  • has not contracted its teaching systems
  • has not enrolled any student