Academic Standards
Students must remain in good academic standing to remain in the program and to remain eligible for financial support. To be in good standing in the Graduate School, a student must maintain a graduate cumulative point hour ratio of 3.0 or better in all graduate credit courses after 15 credit hours and must maintain reasonable progress toward graduate program requirements (see below). Failure to maintain a GPA of 3.0 results in a student's being placed on probation by the Graduate School (see section V of the Graduate School Handbook). A student who is on probation may not be appointed or reappointed as a graduate associate. A student may be denied further registration by the graduate school after three quarters on a warning unless a petition by the GSC is approved by the Graduate School. Students are not eligible to take the Candidacy Examination or the Final Oral Examination if their GPA is below 3.0.
Graduate students must maintain professional ethical standards in their studies and research. The University Committee on Academic Misconduct is responsible for reviewing cases of misconduct. For more information on academic standards, students should consult the Graduate School Handbook.
Reasonable Progress
Students also are expected to make reasonable progress in their doctoral program. Full-time students who enter the OSUN program with an M.S. degree should be able to complete the doctorate in 3 to 5 years. Reasonable progress can be determined at the discretion of the GSC but includes factors such as not having a permanent advisor by the end of the first year of study, entering candidacy by the end of the second year (i.e., having an accepted plan of study and thesis proposal and having a scheduled Candidacy Exam by the first quarter of the third year), not having nor making dissertation research progress or otherwise not meeting written expectations during the year being currently evaluated. At the end of each year, the student and advisor should submit a brief report to the director to document accomplishments and goals for the student’s course schedule and dissertation research, and the advisory or dissertation committee should be consulted for evaluation at least once per year. This performance report should be provided to the director in January to coincide with the major input being generated for the OSUN annual report.