The Office of Professional Education supports the land-grant mission of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign by coordinating its offering of certificate programs, professional masters degrees, continuing education, workforce development and other educational opportunities to its current and future students, alumni and the general public.
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign offers three levels of certificate programs.
- The Certificate of Completion is non-credit certificate conferred at the college-level upon completion of a program of non-credit courses, such as those offered on the Canvas Catalog platform or as Coursera specializations available to the general public. The Certificate of Completion represents coursework that has not conferred university credit, but can be used to represent continuing education units (CEU), professional development hours (PDH) or continuing medical education (CME). The Certificate of Completion is not eligible for federal financial aid.
- The Certificate of Achievement is a non-degree certificate conferred at the college-level upon completion of a non-degree program of at least three credit-bearing courses. The Certificate of Achievement does not appear on the student’s transcript, but its courses are transcripted and can be transferred and/or stacked toward a later degree program (at the degree program’s discretion). University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign degree majors can also pursue a Certificate of Achievement, but others must meet university admission requirements and be admitted by the certificate program as a non-degree student before taking any of its credit-bearing courses. The Certificate of Achievement is not eligible for federal financial aid.
- The Graduate Certificate is an IBHE-recognized post-baccalaureate certificate conferred by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign upon completion of at least 12 hours of graduate level coursework. The Graduate Certificate and its coursework appear on the student’s transcript, and can be transferred and/or stacked toward a later degree program (at the degree program’s discretion). University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign degree majors can also pursue a Graduate Certificate, but must enroll in that Graduate Certificate program separately for at least one term. Others must meet university admission requirements and be admitted by the certificate program as a Graduate Certificate student before taking any of its credit-bearing courses. The Graduate Certificate is a program eligible for federal financial aid.
See our page on Certificate Programs for more information, as well as this list of our credit-bearing certificates.