[Pols-l] FW: Changes to Doctoral Post-Comprehensive Enrollment Policies!

[Pickerel, Linda M.]

Just making sure you all are aware of the good news.  Graduate students are no longer required to be enrolled in the summer semesters as a part of post comprehensive exams enrollment!  Also, though not in the information below, we now do not have to have students wait five months after exams before they can defend.  It is now only one month.        -Linda

From: Roberts Graham, Amber
Sent: Friday, February 3, 2017 2:47 PM
Subject: Changes to Doctoral Post-Comprehensive Enrollment Policies


Sent on behalf of Michael C. Roberts, Dean of Graduate Studies

Good afternoon Graduate Administrators,

KU’s executive leadership has recently approved the Office of Graduate Studies’ proposal to modify post-comprehensive enrollment requirements for doctoral students.  In victories like this, there are many victors — appropriately!  Graduate students, in this case, are the largest constituency of victors and we know they will be happy to remove this particular financial pressure from their personal budgets.

This policy change means that “continuous enrollment” for post-comprehensive doctoral students will be measured in the same way it is for all of KU’s other student groups: these students will be required to enroll in fall and spring semesters but not necessarily during the summer, as they have had to do in the past. (Doctoral students should consult with their advisors and departmental graduate staff to determine whether any other policies require them to enroll during the summer. For example, students must be enrolled to hold a GRA position and there are other reasons to enroll in the summer as well.)

The initiative to change the summer enrollment policy has been percolating in Graduate Studies for a long time but a number of questions, including concern about the policy change’s potential financial impact on the institution, obstructed its passage until now. We thank the members of the Executive Council of Graduate Faculty for continually raising the issue and we thank Professor Ben Chappell who, during his term of service on the Executive Council, researched policies at peer universities and advocated on behalf of KU’s graduate students whenever opportunities presented themselves.

We specifically appreciate that Provost Neeli Bendapudi and Interim Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Stuart Day took on the summer enrollment policy.  They showed an openness to new ideas, a data-gathering orientation, and a willingness to see things through.  Vice Provost for Administration & Finance Diane Goddard and Associate Vice Provost Richard McKinney also put much time and analysis into reviewing financial models to approve this policy change. Overall, these efforts demonstrate that good things can happen with initiative, factual information, and astute leadership.

The Doctoral Candidacy policy<https://documents.ku.edu/policies/Graduate_Studies/doctoralcandidacy.htm> has been updated in the policy library to reflect the revisions shown below.  These updates are currently in effect.   Please contact Graduate Studies<mailto:graduate at ku.edu> if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
Michael C. Roberts, Ph.D., ABPP
Dean, Graduate Studies


Post-comprehensive Enrollment
Doctoral candidates are required, after passing the comprehensive oral examination, to be continuously enrolled each fall and spring semester in one or more hours of dissertation or programmatically equivalent coursework (for example, document hours for DMA students) that both moves the student towards degree completion and reflects, as accurately as possible, the candidate’s demands on faculty time and university facilities. During this time, until all requirements for the degree are completed (including the filing of the dissertation) or until 18 post-comprehensive hours have been completed (whichever comes first), the candidate must enroll for a minimum of 6 hours a semester. and 3 hours a summer session.
Post-comprehensive enrollment may include enrollment during the semester or summer session in which the comprehensive oral examination has been passed. If after 18 hours of post-comprehensive enrollment the degree is not completed, the candidate must continue to enroll each semester and each summer session until all degree requirements have been met. The number of hours of each enrollment must be determined by the candidate’s advisor and must reflect as accurately as possible the candidate’s demands on faculty time and university facilities.





Amber Roberts Graham, Ph.D. Candidate
Policy Coordinator, Office of Graduate Studies
amberts at ku.edu<mailto:amberts at ku.edu>
785-864-7332

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