E1.7 Academic Probation
Updated: August 26th, 2011
Probation for students not yet advanced to candidacy. Students who have not yet advanced to candidacy can be placed on academic probation and ultimately dismissed if they fail to make sufficient progress toward their degrees. (Students advanced to candidacy are “lapsed”; see section below “Probationary Status after advancement — Lapsed Candidacy.”) Probation is intended to provide a student whose performance is less than satisfactory with a period in which to correct the deficiencies and to raise his or her performance to a level consistent with the minimum standards set by the Graduate Division in consultation with the department. Students on probationary status may register and enroll, but they may not hold academic appointments, receive graduate fellowships, or be awarded advanced degrees.
Departments may recommend probation and dismissal on the basis of a written evaluation of the student’s progress. However, only the Dean of the Graduate Division has the authority to place a student on probation, to remove probationary status, and, if necessary, to dismiss a student from graduate standing. Some departments may choose to issue warning letters to apprise students that they are not making satisfactory progress rather than request formal probation for a student (see “Action regarding Insufficient Progress” in Section E1.6).
Probation for GPA below Graduate Division requirements. At the end of each semester, the Graduate Division reviews the records of all registered graduate students. In most instances, if a student begins a program in a new field of study, or is readmitted to a new major, only the grades in the current program will be computed by the Graduate Division. However, courses taken in the “old” major that are directly relevant to the new major (e.g., English and Comparative Literature) will be included in the overall grade-point average. Following this review, students whose grade-point average is below 3.0 will receive a letter from the Graduate Division informing them that they have been placed on probation and are subject to dismissal if their GPA remains below the minimum 3.0 requirement, or below the department’s requirement which may be higher, by the end of the following semester. A copy of the letter will be sent to each department.
Probation for Incompletes. The Graduate Division does not place students on probation for having more than two Incompletes. However, students are not allowed to hold a GSI or GSR appointment if they have accumulated more than two Incompletes.
If a department wishes to put a student on probation for not complying with its own Incompletes policy, it can recommend to the Dean that the student be placed on probation until the deficiencies are rectified.
Probationary period. The probationary period is normally for one semester, during which the student is expected to remove academic deficiencies. If the student has failed to correct these deficiencies, the Graduate Division will contact the department to request a recommendation from the Head Graduate Adviser on whether the student’s situation warrants an extension of the academic probationary period. If the probationary period is not extended, the department should formally request that the Graduate Dean dismiss the student. A registration block is then placed on the student’s future registration.
Students may not remain on probation indefinitely. They should try to remove deficiencies as soon as possible, usually within one semester. Graduate Advisers should inform students that, while on probation, they cannot take courses on an S/U basis unless the course is offered only on an S/U basis and is part of the program required for the degree.
Probationary Status after Advancement — Lapsed Candidacy. Students advanced to candidacy are also subject to a probationary status termed “lapsed candidacy.” This usually occurs when students have exceeded their major’s Normative Time in Candidacy (NTIC) by two years. However, a department may request the Graduate Division to “lapse” a student earlier if the student is not advancing satisfactorily towards completing the degree, such as failing to secure an approved prospectus or insufficient progress on the dissertation. As a consequence of being lapsed, a student may not hold any academic appointment or fellowship. For more information about lapsing, see Section F3.7 “Lapsing, Reinstatement, and Termination of Candidacy.”
Removing a student from academic probationary status. Students may be placed on, or removed from, probation, or lapsed status only by the Dean of the Graduate Division. They are removed from probationary status imposed for failing to maintain the minimum grade-point average when they raise their grade-point averages to at least 3.0. If a student was placed on probation or lapsed because the department and the Graduate Division determined that he or she was not making adequate progress, the Head Graduate Adviser must inform the cognizant Associate Dean in writing (in care of the Graduate Services: Degrees Office (318 Sproul Hall, #5900) that the student has met the conditions for removing probation and should be cleared. A separate recommendation that probation be removed must be made for each individual student. It is the same protocol to remove a student from lapsed status, but the request by memo would be to reinstate the candidacy of the student rather than to “clear probation” (see Section F3.7, “Lapsing, Reinstatement, and Termination of Candidacy”).
See All Topics in the Category: E. Course Work, Grading, Probation, and Dismissal, Guide to Graduate Policy
