Best Practices – Graduate Student Progress

Owned by Jackie Snider (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Sept 30, 2022 by Rickie Smith
3 min read

 There are three basic components to academic standards

  1. Maintaining graduate degree status (minimum unit enrollment—8 units are needed for full time status, employment and fellowship eligibility);

  2. Achieving satisfactory performance to levels as evaluated by faculty members; and

  3. Making timely progress through required program milestones.

It is the goal of the Academic Senate and of the Graduate Division that all graduate students make timely progress toward successfully completing their degree programs. In order to ensure such success, it is necessary to provide early support to prevent later problems. The following text outlines essential components to ensuring success, taking steps to help when needed, and following due process in the unfortunate case where dismissal is needed.

Stage 1: Preventing the problem

Efforts by faculty and staff that ensure a high probability of success are:

  • Careful admission decisions, matching the talent and interests of students to the opportunities in graduate programs and faculty areas of research

  • Clear definition of “good academic standards”:

    • Clear guidelines about degree requirements (detailed handbooks and General Catalog entries)

    • Clear expectations about timely progress through degree milestones

      • Informal encouragement and continuous timely feedback on student performance:

  • Connecting a student to an advisor for periodic meetings

  • Providing periodic feedback on performance

    • Completing a yearly evaluation (in writing)

    • Referring graduate students to the Disabled Students Program when medical issues are preventing normal progress towards degree milestones.

 Stage 2: Helping to solve the problem early

Students may experience problems making timely progress through their program for a variety of reasons. There are steps that the institution may take to prevent these problems and help the students through.

  • Provide written notification that gives:

    • A clear description of the unsatisfactory performance

    • A clear statement about what must be done within a specified amount of time to rectify the problem (expectations must be reasonable and consistent with what is required of all other students in the program)

    • An indication of what assistance will be provided to help the student during this time

    • A specification of what the consequences will be if expectations are not met. You may notify a student that the department may recommend monitoring status or probation if expectations are not met, keeping in mind that only the Dean has the authority to place a student on monitoring or probation, and only the Dean can dismiss a student for academic reasons. Please see section below for the formal process.

Two things to avoid:

Helping a student too much for an extended period of time. – Why not? The student needs to achieve the ability to independently produce quality research or scholarship at a high level. Help offered early should be eased back at later stages of the student’s program.

Giving a student a passing grade (on coursework or on milestone exams) when that student has not met the requirements/standards of the course. – Why not? If at some point a dismissal process is needed, there must be evidence of the student’s failure to meet standards.

Stage 3: Addressing the problem through formal means (Monitoring, Probation)

The Graduate Division is responsible for administering the formal due process procedures of monitoring and academic probation when students are not in good academic standing.

Good Academic Standing is defined as:

  • Establish a GPA by taking courses for letter grades

  • Maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.0 (Senate reg. 300D and 350D)

  • Complete course work. The standard will not be met if the student has 12 or more units of unfinished coursework: Incomplete (I), No Grade (NG), or No Record (NR)

  • Meet all departmental degree requirements, as outlined in the General Catalog(Senate reg. 255B, 255C, 265, and 270)

  • Master's students must complete the master's degree within the four-year time limit (Senate reg. 300A)

  • Doctoral students must meet departmental specific time-to-degree standards based on admission year (Senate reg. 350A and Graduate Council rulings)

The details on the Monitoring and Probation procedure can be found here:

https://ucsb-atlas.atlassian.net/l/c/mWZ1HyMy

Other types of problems seen in the academic community

Dishonesty and disruptive student behavior must involve the Office of Student Conduct.

Ethics and professionalism are implicit in our academic community but may be explicitly defined in discipline‐specific accreditation or licensing standards. A student should be notified at the beginning of a program that they will be assessed on their ethical and professional behavior throughout their academic tenure.