11/18/2009

Extension of Doctoral Time Limits for Political Science

The Graduate Council approved Political Science to be added to the list  of departments whose doctoral students admitted directly from baccalaureate may have 8 years instead of 7. This change is effective from Fall 2009. 

Previous Policy for Time Limits:

All requirements for the doctoral degree must be completed within seven years (21 fall, spring, and summer semesters) following admission to the doctoral program, with the following specific exceptions approved by the Graduate Council: psychology, modern languages and classics, and English (eight years if entering the doctoral program with a baccalaureate, not master's, degree), and eight years from the time of first registration in PhD courses for students dually enrolled in the PhD program in political science and the JD program.

New Policy for Time Limits:

All requirements for the doctoral degree must be completed within seven years (21 fall, spring, and summer semesters) following admission to the doctoral program, with the following specific exceptions approved by the Graduate Council: psychology, modern languages and classics, English and political science (eight years if entering the doctoral program with a baccalaureate, not master's, degree), and eight years from the time of first registration in PhD courses for students dually enrolled in the PhD program in political science and the JD program.

Alternative Doctoral Residency

The Graduate Council passed a policy for a department to propose a department-specific, alternative doctoral residency requirement in addition to the traditional requirement.  A proposed alternative must meet the spirit of doctoral residency, and in the proposal the department must demonstrate that the alternative meets the five essential value constructs for doctoral residency, as outlined in Table 1.

Effective date: Fall 2008

Additional Methods of Meeting Doctoral Residency

The traditional method for meeting doctoral residency has been for the student to complete two consecutive full-time semesters of doctoral study on the UA campus, and this method remains the primary way to fulfill residency.  The Graduate Council in September 2007 unanimously passed a policy whereby, in addition to the traditional method of fulfilling doctoral residency, residency can be met with (a) one spring semester as a full-time doctoral student plus the following fall semester as a full-time doctoral student, or (b) a summer (consisting of both summer terms as a full-time doctoral student), plus the immediately preceding spring or immediately following fall semester as a full-time doctoral student

In the past, there has not been an absolute deadline for submitting the doctoral Plan of Study. The Graduate Catalog simply stated that the Plan of Study should be filed soon after admission. This lack of specificity has resulted in some students’ waiting until very late—sometimes their final semester—to file their Plan of Study, only to learn that one or more requirements had not been met. This is not a good situation for graduate students.

To alleviate such problems, the policy now requires the doctoral Plan of Study to be filed with the Graduate School no later than the semester during which the student will complete 30 semester hours of UA and/or transfer credit toward the doctoral degree. Otherwise, a hold may be placed on future registrations. No new paperwork is required, and doctoral students may continue to use either the Plan of Study form at the Graduate School’s website or one developed by the department. Effective date: Fall 2007.
 

The new policy allows 4 weeks into the next semester, rather than the current 2 weeks, for removal of Incompletes before they are computed as F’s. This will allow better tracking of students with Incompletes, provide a more reasonable time frame for having Incompletes converted to regular letter grades, and greatly reduce the number of graduate students who are placed on academic warning.

The current In-Progress grade will be deleted from the Catalog. This designation originally was meant only for asynchronous courses and is no longer useful because the Banner system can handle such courses. Effective date: Fall 2007.

Most graduate schools are shifting to online catalogs with limited printing of bound hard copies. Twelve of the 15 institutions in the Alabama Council of Graduate Deans responded to a survey about their Catalogs, and all 12 said they use primarily an online Catalog. The same is true for a majority of SEC schools. In a survey in Fall 2006, prospective UA graduate students said nearly unanimously that they favor an online Catalog. Thus, the upcoming 2007-2009 Catalog will be produced as a pdf.-web document with limited printing of bound copies from the web for use in UA offices. This step will reduce costs significantly, save considerable time in preparing and revising the Graduate Catalog, and provide better service to graduate students, faculty, and others. Effective date: Fall 2007.

Doctoral Time Limits Extension Request

Time Limits

All requirements for the doctoral degree must be completed within the seven-year period (21 fall, spring, and summer semesters) following admission to the doctoral program, with the following specific exceptions: psychology, modern languages and classics, and English (eight years if entering the doctoral program with a baccalaureate, not master's, degree). Previous graduate credit may be applied to the doctoral degree if the credit was earned during the six-year period prior to admission to the doctoral program. Such credit should be identified clearly on the Outline of Doctoral Program for the Ph.D. form, which is available under Web Forms for Students. Only those students graduating within the time limit for their doctoral program may apply previous graduate credit to the doctoral degree if the credit was earned during the six-year period prior to admission to the doctoral program.

Time Limits Extension Request

Under compelling circumstances beyond the student’s control, a student may petition for a one-semester extension to the seven-year time limit (or eight-year time limit for the selected programs noted above). If the one-semester extension is recommended by the department head and college dean (if required by the college dean), and subsequently approved by the graduate dean, the extension will not require the student to validate any out-of-date UA or transfer courses previously approved for the plan of study.

If a student fails to complete all degree requirements within the time limit for the student’s doctoral program or within a one-semester extension approved as noted above, the student will be dropped from the doctoral program. To complete a doctoral degree, the student must reapply for admission. Graduate Catalog policies do not provide the option to revalidate either UA or transfer courses completed more than six years prior to the date of admission. A readmitted student therefore would be able to apply to the new admission only those courses approved by the department and Graduate School and completed within the prior 6 years (18 fall, spring, and summer semesters).


Repeating Courses When Given an Extension

When requests are made for extensions of Graduate School time limits, and it is deemed that an out-of-date course is integral to the degree program, the college dean may request permission of the Graduate School for such a course to be repeated. In this case, both grades shall be used in calculation of the GPA.

The Graduate Council on February 24, 2004, passed the following minor change in the category of “Temporary Membership” on the Graduate Faculty. The change is in red italics.

From Appendix P of the Faculty Handbook:

C. Temporary Membership

Temporary membership may be extended to well-qualified individuals who do not satisfy the above criteria (for full or associate membership), to perform specific functions for specific time periods, not to exceed one three calendar years. They should be recommended by the departmental graduate faculty, department chairperson, and dean of the academic division. These nominations will then be acted upon by the chairperson of the Graduate Council, the dean of the Graduate School.

Transfer Credit

The 2002-2003 Graduate Council combined the Thesis/Dissertation Fellowships with the Research Fellowships into one category entitled, "Research and Creative Activity Fellowships." Departmental nominations may be made for students engaged in their own thesis or dissertation work or for students working with faculty in research or scholarly/creative activity.

Article Style Dissertations

"A graduate student with regular status in a graduate program who drops below a “B” average (at any time after earning 12 semester hours) will be placed on academic warning."

Under the previous policy, a regularly admitted graduate student could be placed on academic warning after earning as few as 6 graduate semester hours. The policy took effect March 1, 2001

Graduate Assistantships - Fall PA Forms