4.5.1 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.

Plan of Study
The student's plan of study is determined in consultation with the head of the major department or the chairperson of the graduate committee and is 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 If readmission is granted, previous credit earned may be out of date and therefore not applicable toward a degree.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.

4.5.2 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 of any kind.

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.

The FTE from ALL assistantships, plus any other on-campus employment, must be combined when determining FTE (Full-Time Equivalent) status.

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 FTE level of the assistantship assignment is converted to equivalent credit hours and 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).

Overloads Involving Just Courses

The Graduate School does not need to approve overloads involving just courses, unless the number of course hours exceeds 15 (which is the maximum Banner will permit without special approval by the Graduate School).

Overloads Involving Assistantship FTE Plus Courses

The Graduate School also does not need to approve combined FTE + course hour loads that are within the table guidelines below.

The table below includes the Graduate Council’s maximum recommended combinations of FTE plus course hours. Combinations of assistantship FTE in excess of 0.75 remain prohibited. In exceptional circumstances the Dean of the Graduate School or his designee may grant special approval for assistantship workloads in excess of 0.75, based on a formal request from the student’s academic supervisor and employment supervisor.

The Graduate School continues to urge caution when considering large course and/or FTE loads and will continue to monitor overloads even though prior approval is not needed. We especially monitor whether or not academic warnings and suspensions increase and, if they do, we track the student’s and department’s overload history for signs of a correlation. We hope and expect that student loads will be designed intelligently to provide meaningful yet not burdensome GTA and GRA experiences, while allowing students to move efficiently through their degree programs.

Caution also is urged when considering an underload, i.e., course hours below the recommended minimum for a particular FTE level in the previous table. Underloads risk the student’s not making adequate progress toward degree completion. Underloads typically occur only in the final semester and only to avoid taking needless extra course hours to meet the minimum number of hours normally expected for a particular FTE level.

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, the 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.

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.

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

See graduate catalog (Section 4.6) for details on the requirements for continuous registration for doctoral students.

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.

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.

THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA GRADUATE CATALOG

:: TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Graduate School | UA Catalogs | Graduate Publications | Contact