F1.5 Advancement to Candidacy for a Master’s Degree
Updated: August 26th, 2011
Students under Plan II must be advanced to candidacy prior to taking the comprehensive examination and Plan I students must be advanced before filing their theses.
How and when to apply for advancement. By Academic Senate regulation, a minimum period of study of one term must intervene between formal advancement to candidacy and the conferring of the master’s degree. Therefore, for students to be advanced to candidacy, departments must submit to the Graduate Services: Degrees Office (318 Sproul Hall, #5900) the “Application for Candidacy” form no later than the end of the fifth week of classes of the semester in which they expect to receive the degree. The form is available from the Graduate Division website (www.grad.berkeley.edu/policies/forms.shtml), which also posts the deadline dates in the “Deadlines Calendar” (www.grad.berkeley.edu/policies/degree_filing_deadlines.shtml). All students advancing to candidacy under Plan II are included on a list submitted by their department to Graduate Services Degrees. Students advancing under Plan I submit individual applications for candidacy that list the proposed thesis committee.
Required signatures. Every candidacy form must be signed by the Head Graduate Adviser. For students under Plan I, the Chair of the Thesis Committee must also sign the form. After it is signed, departments are advised to photocopy the form if they want a copy for their files.
Advancement and Human Subjects certificate requirement. Students who are using human subjects in their research must complete the “Course in the Protection of Human Subjects” (referred to as the CITI course) available online (www.citiprogram.org) and print out the certificate of completion. This certificate must be submitted with the advancement form.
Review of advancement eligibility. The Graduate Division reviews each student’s application against his or her record to determine eligibility for advancement to candidacy. If the student is eligible, a formal notice of advancement to candidacy will be sent to the student, to the department, and to the thesis committee members (Plan I). If a student is not eligible, the department and the student will be notified that advancement has been deferred. The application will be held for future review once the student has notified the Graduate Services: Degrees Office (318 Sproul Hall, #5900) that the deficiency has been cleared and can be verified.
Preparation for advancement. Master’s students can avoid disappointment and delays regarding advancement by working with their graduate advisers to check the following:
Program. All courses offered for degrees must be approved by the Academic Senate’s Committee on Courses of Instruction. From these approved courses, faculty select the appropriate courses for degree programs. Departments must inform the Graduate Division if they wish to change degree requirements; approval by the Graduate Council may be necessary.
On the advancement form, students list courses needed for the degree, including course work completed and course work planned. For an academic master’s degree, students must show that they will complete the minimum program for their plan (20 units required for Plan I or 24 units required for Plan II in the 100 or 200 series). The units completed must include a minimum of 8 units for Plan I and 12 units for Plan II in the 200 series iin the major subject. No more than 6 units of a 20-unit Plan I or a 24-unit Plan II program may be research units, except when the Head Graduate Adviser requests special permission and the cognizant Associate Dean approves the request. (If the program requires more than 24 units, up to 25% of the unit total may be research units.) Units used for one master’s degree cannot be used for another unless they are part of an officially approved concurrent program in which two master’s degrees share a limited number of units. Additional requirements for professional master’s degrees are listed in the announcements of the schools and colleges.
Grading of course work. Two-thirds of all course work (not only those courses required for the master’s program) must be letter-graded, and only courses graded C- or better, or Satisfactory, may be counted toward degree requirements. For more information on Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grades, please refer to the “Grading” section in the “Course Work, Grading, Probation, and Dismissal” chapter of this guide (chapter E, section 1.3).
Grade-point average. If the grade-point average is above 2.85, the student may apply for advancement to candidacy if current course work is sufficient for the student to achieve the required 3.0. For the degree to be awarded, the student’s overall grade-point average must be at least 3.0, computed on the basis of all upper division and graduate courses (not only those required for the master’s program), which are taken in graduate standing up through the student’s final semester.
Course deficiencies. The following must be rectified for award of the master’s degree, although a student may be advanced with these deficiencies:
- Incomplete or In Progress grades for required courses (see chapter E, section 1.3, regarding Incomplete and In Progress grades).
- Courses to remove academic deficiencies required by the department as a condition of the student’s admission to the degree program. In some cases, course work completed in University Extension may be used to correct deficiencies, but it cannot be counted toward fulfilling unit requirements for the degree.
Foreign language requirement. Students must pass any required departmental language examinations before they are advanced to candidacy.
Thesis Committee (Plan I). Students must have a properly constituted thesis committee of three members, two of whom must be Academic Senate members from the student’s major. It is preferred, but not required, that students following Plan I have an outside member on the thesis committee, i.e., an Academic Senate faculty member outside the student’s major field. If a proposed committee member does not belong to the Academic Senate, his or her curriculum vitae and bibliography, as well as a statement giving the reason for the selection and why an exception should be granted, must accompany the application. For more information on faculty committees and requesting exceptional appointments, see “Faculty Committees for Higher Degrees” in the section below on “Policies Affecting Both Master’s and Doctoral Students.”
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