General Requirements
Any graduate student utilizing the assistance of a faculty member or any facility of The University of Alabama in relation to a degree program must be registered in an appropriate course reflecting that activity. This includes such activities as coursework, thesis and dissertation advising and reading, comprehensive examinations, and other degree requirements. Registration in courses numbered 599 (Thesis Research), 699 (Dissertation Research), 598 (Master's Research), and 698 (Doctoral Research) may be repeated.
 
Prerequisites
If the student's undergraduate preparation in either the major or minor subject is considered inadequate, certain preliminary (undergraduate and/or graduate) courses will be prescribed by the department or school concerned. These courses become prerequisites and do not carry graduate credit. They must be taken, if possible, during the first semester of enrollment.

Course of Study
The student's course of study (i.e., plan of study) is selected in consultation with the head of the major department or the chairperson of the graduate committee, and approved by that person and the dean of the Graduate School.

Course Loads
The normal course load for a fall or spring semester is 12 credit hours; the maximum course load for a semester is 15 credit hours. Full-time enrollment for graduate students is 9–15 hours per regular semester.

Students may register for a maximum of 6 semester hours in a summer term or 12 hours during an entire summer dual session. No more than 3 semester hours may be taken during the Interim session. Taking more than 12 semester hours in a summer dual term can be justified only in extraordinary circumstances and requires written approval of the Graduate School. A student who is employed part-time is expected to take a reduced load. The course load of a fully employed student will be evaluated according to the individual graduate program. Fully employed students should be registered in no more than one course plus thesis or dissertation research.

Failure to Register for Three Years
If a student fails to register for three consecutive years, the student must reapply for admission. If readmission is granted, previous credit earned may be out of date and therefore not applicable toward a degree. See sections titled "Time Limits" for each degree in this catalog.

Assistantships: Admission Status, Class Hours, and FTE Level
Students with regular or conditional admission status may hold graduate assistantships. A minimum GPA of 3.0 must be maintained while holding any assistantship, except during the first 12 graduate semester hours earned at UA.

Students who have earned academic warning or are in non-degree status may not hold graduate assistantships.

A conditionally admitted student whose graduate GPA falls below 3.0 at any time during the conditional status will not be allowed to hold a graduate teaching assistantship until such time as the GPA has increased to 3.0 or better. A student with provisional language admission status may hold only an assistantship that is externally funded through a contract or grant; he or she may not hold a permanently budgeted UA assistantship.

Each graduate assistant must be a full-time graduate student.  Full-time status here means 12 or more graduate semester hours of classes; however, the level of FTE (Full-Time Equivalent) of the assistantship assignment is converted to equivalent credit hours and is combined with actual class hours in order to meet the full-time requirement.  A quarter-time assistantship (0.25 FTE) equates to 3 class hours; a half-time assistantship (0.50 FTE) equates to 6 class hours; and a three-quarter time assistantship (0.75 FTE) equates to 9 class hours. This means that a student who has, for example, the typical 0.50 FTE assistantship needs to register for only 6 class hours in order to meet the full-time requirement (6 assistantship equivalent hours plus 6 actual class hours).

Students may hold up to 1.00 FTE assistantship plus up to 3 semester class hours without Graduate School approval. However, formal approval of the Graduate School is required when class hours exceed 3 at the 1.00 FTE level. Please note that combined FTEs approaching 1.00 may negatively affect a student’s full-time status with the IRS, funding agencies, health insurance carriers or others.

The FTE from ALL assistantships, plus any other on-campus employment, must be combined when determining full-time equivalent status.

The table below is a guide to determine whether or not Graduate School approval is required for typical combinations of FTE (assistantship) hours plus course hours the student is taking.

For fall and spring semesters, a graduate student must be enrolled in classes to hold an assistantship. For interim and/or summer, it is not required that a graduate student be enrolled in classes to hold an assistantship.

Please note that full-time status here is not the same as that required for other registration and financial situations. For example, fellowships, financial aid regulations, resident visa rules, UA System Cooperative Exchange Program, INS and IRS regulations, and other academic policies use different status definitions with regard to full-time. For more information, please refer to the department(s) administering these other programs.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools requires that all graduate teaching assistants with primary responsibility for teaching an undergraduate course for credit and/or assigning grades must first complete a minimum of 18 graduate semester hours in the teaching discipline, must have direct supervision by a faculty member experienced in the teaching discipline, regular in-service training, and planned and periodic evaluations. SACS guidelines and UA policy do not permit graduate students to teach graduate students; only members of the graduate faculty may teach courses numbered 500 and above.

Part-Time Temporary Instructors

A graduate student employed as a part-time temporary instructor (PTTI) to teach a credit-bearing course must meet the SACS 18-hour requirement. Such PTTIs do not receive tuition waivers, must pay taxes on the income they earn as PTTIs, and must comply with "Personnel Policies for Student Employees of The University of Alabama" (http://graduate.ua.edu/publications/ga/)

Class Attendance
Graduate students are subject to the same rules regarding class attendance, the performance of assigned tasks, and course examinations as undergraduate students. Since graduate work presupposes specialization and thorough investigation, students will not be permitted to overload themselves with courses.

Continuous Registration for Doctoral Students
Once a student has met the requirements for admission to candidacy, received approval for the dissertation research proposal, or initiated enrollment in 699 (dissertation research for a doctoral degree), the student must pursue completion of the dissertation without interruption by enrolling each fall and spring semester of the academic year for at least 3 hours of dissertation research. This is true whether or not the student has submitted an Application for Admission to Candidacy (http://graduate.ua.edu/academics/forms/). The only exception is for D.M.A. students who complete a document rather than a dissertation. D.M.A. students may register for one hour of document research during a semester but must maintain continuous enrollment. A Ph.D. student must have completed a minimum of 24 hours of dissertation research credits upon completion of the dissertation. An Ed.D. student must have completed a minimum of 12 dissertation research credits upon completion of the dissertation. The amount of dissertation research for which a student enrolls in any given semester should be commensurate with the progress a student is expected to make on the dissertation, as well as reflective of the extent to which University facilities and faculty time are invested in the proposed activities.

To assist faculty and students in determining the appropriate registration for doctoral research, the following guidelines are recommended.

Three semester hours. No substantial progress will be made on the dissertation, only minimal use of University facilities will be involved, and/or there will be only slight faculty contact with the student; the work and writing of the dissertation are complete and only final grammatical corrections and the oral examination on the dissertation remain to be accomplished.

Six semester hours. The student will be devoting approximately one-half of a full-time academic load to the dissertation. Moderate progress on the dissertation is expected of the candidate, only limited use of University facilities will be involved, and/or faculty contact with the student will be limited.

Nine semester hours. The student will be devoting approximately three-fourths of a full-time load to the dissertation. Substantial progress on the dissertation is expected of the student, there will be major use of University facilities, and/or considerable faculty contact with the candidate is anticipated.

Twelve semester hours. The student will be working full-time academic on the dissertation. Extensive progress on the dissertation is expected, there will be considerable use of University facilities, and/or faculty contact with the student will be extensive.

Graduate Credit
A student must be admitted to the Graduate School and must register as a graduate student in order to receive graduate credit. Approval for graduate registration must be obtained from program advisors prior to registration. No graduate credit may be earned by correspondence study or for experiential learning not conducted under the direct supervision of The University of Alabama.

Withdrawal from a Course
A graduate student who desires to withdraw from a course may do so, with the approval of the student's advisor or department head, during the period allowed for dropping a class. It is the student's responsibility to consult the Graduate School 's deadline sheet for the specific date by which one may drop a course (http://graduate.ua.edu/deadlines).

No notation of courses attempted will be made on the permanent record of a student who withdraws from the University during the first week of a regular semester or the first week of a summer session. After the first week of classes, the fact of withdrawal from a course will be noted on the student's permanent record. It is the student's responsibility to consult the semester's schedule of classes for the specific date by which one may withdraw without receiving a grade notation. From the end of that period until the end of the tenth week of a regular semester or the equivalent in a five-week summer session or three-week Interim session, a student may withdraw from a course, and a grade of "W" will be assigned. Normally, graduate students are not permitted to drop a course after the tenth week. In extraordinary circumstances beyond the student’s control a student may petition the graduate dean to drop a course after the tenth week of class. After the tenth week, the student's academic status at the time of the withdrawal will be noted on the record ("W" for courses passing, "F" for courses failing).

Withdrawal from a course may affect several elements linked to registration and class loads, including (but not limited to) graduate fellowships, assistantships, tuition awards, financial aid, withholding taxes, etc. For more information regarding withdrawing from a course, please contact the Graduate School.

Withdrawal from All Courses
For information on a non-medical or medical withdrawal from all courses, please refer to the earlier section of the Catalog entitled, “Withdrawal from the University.”

Leave of Absence

Under compelling circumstances beyond the student’s control, a graduate student may request that the department petition the Graduate School with the rationale for granting a leave of absence. If granted by the Graduate School, a leave of absence will cover one or more upcoming semesters rather than any prior semester(s). A leave is not a method of avoiding continuous registration requirements, and it does not lengthen the time limit. When a student returns from a leave of absence, the Graduate School must be notified and will work with the department and student to determine the number of semesters remaining on the time limit and the degree requirements that remain.

Active Military Duty
Students called for active military duty will receive an extension to time limits equal to the term of active duty, plus reasonable time to reacclimate to academia. A copy of pertinent military orders must be provided to the Graduate School in order to receive an extension.

Satisfactory Academic Progress Requirements for Federal Financial Aid Recipients
All students at The University of Alabama who receive federal financial aid must make satisfactory academic progress toward completion of their degrees within a reasonable period of time. Satisfactory academic progress criteria may be obtained from the Office of Student Financial Aid, Box 870162, 106 Student Services Center, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0162; phone (205) 348-6756, fax (205) 348-2989; website http://financialaid.ua.edu/progress.html.
 

THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA GRADUATE CATALOG

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Update: February 20, 2008