What is the General Catalog?
The General Catalog serves as the authoritative source of curricular requirements for programs of study in all of the University of Iowa's colleges. It is reviewed and published annually.
General Catalog
Publishes the official General Catalog and supports departments and units with reviewing and updating curricular information annually.
2026-27 Editing Timeline
The 2026–27 General Catalog opens for editing on Oct. 27, 2025, and closes Jan. 16, 2025, with internal deadlines between these dates for page initiators, departmental reviewers, and collegiate reviewers. The catalog will be published in May 2026.
Catalog Users: Definitions
Page Initiators
A page initiator is the first point of contact for the content on a General Catalog page during the editing cycle. This person makes initial edits on behalf of a department. They start the page in our content management system's workflow.
How to locate, edit, and initiate your General Catalog pages.
Catalog Team
The General Catalog team consists of four members: the senior associate director for communications, publications, and events; the editor, the associate registrar for curriculum and academic systems; and the workflow manager.
The senior associate director oversees the publication of the General Catalog as part of senior administration in the Office of the Registrar.
After a page is initiated and approved by page reviewers, the catalog editor reviews for consistency, style, and compliance with university and Board of Regents policies. The editor touches each page in the General Catalog and is users' primary point of contact during the editing cycle.
The associate registrar for curriculum and academic systems reviews pages that have significant curricular changes and pages for new programs of study.
The workflow manager updates workflow paths in our content management system, provisions new users with access, and monitors each page's progress through its workflow stops.
Editing Cycle
Before Editing Opens
Prior to the next academic year's catalog opening for editing, our team reaches out to you to update catalog users and workflow paths for your pages. This is the time to have discussions about curricular changes for programs of study; some colleges have internal processes and deadlines that precede the catalog opening for editing. For example, the Graduate College requires a catalog change form (due Oct. 1, 2025) to make curricular changes to programs of study in their purview.
Catalog Editing Open
During the open editing period, page initiators review and edit their assigned pages, convening with department and unit members as necessary. Programs of study may only update their curriculum for the coming academic year during this open editing period. Once they review and update information on all tabs of a page, they submit the page in CourseLeaf workflow. The page moves to departmental and/or collegiate reviewers before coming to the General Catalog team.
Catalog Editing Closed
When catalog editing closes, no more curricular changes for the coming academic year are permitted. Our team edits pages for alignment with UI editorial guidelines and catalog style. We also ensure the curriculum is correct and serve as liaisons with colleges to promote adherence to policies and procedures. The catalog team sends page initiators, departmental reviewers, and collegiate reviewers a proof review email once their page has been edited. This may include outstanding questions to address. The page then moves to the Degree Audit and Sample Plans teams to update these student tools with any curricular changes.
Catalog Publication & PDF Production
The General Catalog is published in May to be available for new student registration. The catalog remains in draft state until the end of August to accommodate course library updates, administrator changes, and URL changes. In early September, we create an archival PDF of that year's catalog for campus use. It is preserved and available through the Main Library's digital collection.
Editing the General Catalog
Before You Edit
Please read through the following list before editing your pages.
Style and Format
Please do not edit the format of a given page. Our team reviews every page annually to ensure headers, tables, capitalization, punctuation, layout, and more align with the UI editorial style guide, meet accessibility standards, and format correctly in the archival PDF. Program of study names, for example, are not capitalized (i.e., global health studies, BA rather than Global Health Studies, BA). The catalog uses a third-person point of view rather than first or second person. If you are changing requirements substantially enough to necessitate editing headers and tables, please reach out to our team for guidance.
Course Tables
If your curriculum changes, please add and remove courses using the course tables currently on your page. Please do not delete a whole course table and create a new one. Removing a course table causes the entire table to appear red to other reviewers. They cannot see which courses were retained or what specific edits were made. Editing the existing course table/tables allows the General Catalog, Degree Audit, and Sample Plans teams to see what specific curricular changes occurred so we can update student tools accordingly.
Courses
MAUI Course Library is the authoritative source for course attribute information, including title, General Catalog description, requirements, prerequisites, and semester hours. Any changes to these attributes must occur in MAUI first. They will then flow to the General Catalog. See our catalog FAQs for more information.
Review
The catalog team limits the number of people allowed on a page's workflow to one initiator, two departmental reviewers, and one collegiate reviewer (optional). You may find making a PDF of the catalog page useful to receive feedback from other interested parties prior to initiating the page. Every page has a "Print Options" button on the right-hand side that allows you to download a PDF of the page, including all its tabs.
Editing After Page Initiation
If your page has been initiated in workflow and further edits need to be made, email the catalog team for support. Please do not use the "Rollback" button. Our team is happy to make edits and help keep the page moving through the workflow.
Page Initiators
Log onto the editing portal using your HawkID and password. This takes you to the admin console, which shows two tabs, titled "Items" and "Workflow." The pages for which you are the initiator will show on the "Items" tab under "New."
Most initiators will have a landing page/departmental page along with one or more program of study pages to edit and then initiate.
To edit, click on the page to open it. In this new window, click on the top left menu item called "Edit Page" to open the editing menu. See our initiator editing video for details. Any edits you make will show up for future reviewers in underlined green (additions) and struck-through red (deletions). When you're finished, click on the green "Start Workflow" button in the bottom right corner of the editing screen. Do this for each page until no pages are listed under "New" in "Items."
Departmental Reviewers
You will receive an email from uiowa@notify.courseleaf.com when a page has reached your review stop. To review, either click on the link in that email or go to the Approve Pages console. This will prompt you to sign in with your HawkID and password before bringing you to the Approve Pages console.
The page initiator's edits and the previous departmental reviewer's edits will be visible on the page. Additions appear in green, underlined font. Deletions appear in red, struck-through font.
Reviewing a Landing Page
Landing pages typically have tabs titled Overview, Programs, and Courses.
Review the information on the Overview tab for accuracy, making edits as needed. Review the Administrators section and edit if needed.
Review information on any other tabs. Please do not edit the Programs or Courses tabs. Contact the catalog team with questions or to request updates to these tabs.
Click the green "Approve" button when all tabs have been reviewed for accuracy.
Reviewing a Program of Study Page
Program of study pages may include tabs titled Overview, Requirements, Combined Programs, Honors, Career Advancement, Financial Support, and Academic Plans.
Review the information on each tab and make edits as needed. Please do not upload a Sample Plan on the Academic Plans tab. The Sample Plans team will do this when they review your page. Review the list on this page titled "Before You Edit" for more tips and tricks.
Collegiate Reviewers
Collegiate reviewers access their catalog pages like departmental reviewers.
In addition to reviewing each tab for accuracy, like departmental reviewers, please ensure content, especially requirements and policy and procedure language, are accurate for the catalog year.
FAQ
I need to edit a course title or semester hours. How do I do this?
Courses feed to the General Catalog from the MAUI Course Library. All changes to courses, including semester hours, course title, requirements, prerequisites, and more, must first occur in the MAUI Course Library. Changes feed to the catalog the business day after they are approved in MAUI workflow. The MAUI help site can show you how to create a new course, drop a course, or revise an existing course. Email reg-course-approval@uiowa.edu with questions.
My department wants to create/update/end a program of study. How do I add this to the catalog?
Programs of study are added to the General Catalog once they have received all necessary approvals and are active in MAUI. For most programs of study, this requires college, provost, and Iowa Board of Regents approval, which can take some time. The Office of the Provost offers a comprehensive overview of steps to create, update, or end a program of study. Once approved, the catalog team creates a new catalog page and works with departments to build the page's information, including curricular requirements.
How do I update my page's workflow path?
The catalog team will reach out to you near the start of the fall semester to confirm workflow paths for each catalog page prior to the open editing period. If a change occurs once the catalog has opened for editing, email the catalog team at registrar-publications@uiowa.edu with the person you would like removed/added and on which pages.
I looked in my workflow and don't see anything related to the catalog. Help!
The General Catalog is created using a third-party content management system called CourseLeaf. All catalog pages route through CourseLeaf's workflow rather than the University of Iowa's Universal Workflow product. Contact the General Catalog team with questions or if you are unable to access your pages.