The University of North Georgia is starting to take shape as the deadline approaches to submit its prospectus to the system’s accrediting agency.

On Wednesday, officials from North Georgia College & State University and Gainesville State College, the two schools that will come together to form the University of North Georgia, announced they have set the admission and tuition process for the new institution.

Under the new process, students will be accepted into various degree programs, including associate, baccalaureate and graduate programs.

Each program will have admissions standards that are independent from the program’s location: Dahlonega, Oakwood, Cumming or Oconee.

“We had broad input from administration from all campuses,” said Bonita Jacobs, president at North Georgia and future leader of the consolidated institution. “There was a great deal of enthusiasm to be able to allow this many options for tuition and admission procedures.”

Tuition will vary depending on what program students apply for and, subsequently, are accepted into.

Unless otherwise specified, according to school officials, students enrolled in the associate degree program will be charged state college tuition rates; those in the baccalaureate program will be charged state university rates; and graduate students will be charged the rates of that particular program.

“It was not an easy task for the people here at the two institutions to come up with a model to accommodate both the access mission and what the students at North Georgia have become accustomed to,” said Randy Pierce, Gainesville State’s interim president. “I think when it’s all said and done, that this is going to be a good model.”

Jacobs said one of the benefits to having the admission and tuition model based on programs and not location was to allow for the growth of said programs.

“Eventually, our goal, among many other things, is to increase substantially the number of baccalaureate programs we can offer in Gainesville,” said Jacobs. “And this will allow us to fund being able to bring in more baccalaureate programs.”

There are few baccalaureate programs offered on Gainesville’s campus and none offered on Oconee’s campus. On the other side, there is only one associate’s degree offered in Dahlonega: nursing.

“In part, it’s the need of the state,” said Jacobs. “The North Georgia region is the fastest-growing area in the state and we simply need more higher education opportunities and we needed to go beyond the boxes we’re in.”

For fall 2012, resident tuition at Gainesville State is $1,423 for 15 or more credit hours and $2,426 for North Georgia.

“The two key things with regards to preserving the access mission is looking at your population and knowing that many of these students are probably first-generation students,” said Pierce. “In order to provide that access, we have to be cognizant with keeping that tuition as low as possible, which has been a hallmark of the access sector.”

The consolidation is slated to be complete by January of next year, but these changes are not scheduled to be implemented until fall semester of 2013 when the two institutions are no longer financially independent.

Officials will meet next week to start the process of selecting a mascot for the new school.

The implementation committee must submit its prospectus to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, an accrediting agency, for approval by Oct. 1.

Once SACS approves it, the University System of Georgia Board of Regents will give its approval.