Helping Your Students Through the Graduation Process

1. Helping Your Students Through the Graduation Process COGA Workshop 2013

2. Agenda Student, Department and COGA’s responsibilities Post-comp enrollment Graduation checklists/COGA resources Electronic theses and dissertations

3. Student Responsibilities Download COGA’s Student Degree Checklist (Master’s or Doctoral) and CLAS Graduate Calendar as a guide to application and submission requirements and deadlines. Verify with the department/adviser that he or she has met all departmental requirements for the degree (including successful outcome on final exam). Review his or her transcript and ensure all that Incompletes, waiting or missing grades (other than those for the final semester) have been cleared from their record.   If Incompletes or Waiting Grades are found, the student should contact the instructor to address the situation.  Submit the Application for Graduation through Enroll & Pay prior to the deadline. He or she must apply for the semester in which they intend to graduate.  Applications for Graduation are tied to one semester and do not extend beyond that semester.  If they have previously applied and did not meet that graduation deadline, they must apply again.    Submit all required documentation (as indicated on the checklist) to COGA by the Application for Graduation deadline. Depending on the degree and program, this can include signed title and acceptance pages, ETD release forms, Doctoral Surveys and UMI/ProQuest submissions

4. Overview of Departmental Responsibilities •Provide students with copies of the relevant Degree Checklist when they complete their Final Exam and send timely reminders to pending graduates as the Application for Graduation deadline approaches. •Review the files of all pending graduates and follow-up on Incomplete, waiting, or missing grades from previous semesters. Grades must be resolved before the degree can be issued because they can impact the students' GPAs and, in the worst-case scenario, render a student ineligible for the degree. Unresolved Incompletes will convert to F's upon the student's graduation if a grade is not assigned. •Two weeks prior to the Application for Graduation deadline, query a list of students who have applied for graduation through the KUGS system on Enroll & Pay. Send reminders to students who are believed to be eligible for graduation but have not yet applied. •Submit Final Exam outcomes via PTD prior to the Application for Graduate deadline. •Within two days following the Application for Graduation deadline, access the KUGS system and update the status of each student who has applied for graduation, indicating whether departmental requirements have been met or if their graduation is denied.

5. Before the Semester Begins • Figure out who intends to defend and graduate in the given semester • Email them the following information: • Reminder about enrolling for the upcoming semester • Final graduation requirement deadline for the semester • Suggested timeline for defending • Link to COGA’s degree checklist • Link to Graduate Studies’ formatting guides • Link to COGA’s graduation guide • Reminder to be in touch frequently with the department and their advisor

6. Scheduling Exams – Avoid Pitfalls In general, you should know by the first few weeks of classes who will be completing a degree granting exam that semester. So, schedule the exam date and submit the PTD as early as possible. Benefits: • Faculty schedules haven’t filled up yet. • Catch problems before they happen and still have time to fix them AND get the pre-approval PTD in by the 2 week deadline. • Committee member needing to be added to Grad Faculty • Student has WGs or Incompletes that must be resolved • Petition needed (ex. Student wasn’t continuously enrolled) • If the student doesn’t end up defending that semester, it’s easier to cancel a pre-approval PTD than squeeze in a petition last minute. • Students then have a real “deadline” that may help keep them on track to completing that semester (improving time to degree)

7. KUGS Graduation Verification

8. KUGS Graduation Verification (cont.)

9. COGA’s Responsibilities Send graduation e-mail to each student as they schedule their final exams/projects. Send reminder e-mails to Departments two weeks in advance of the Application for Graduation deadline and on the Application for Graduation deadline. Follow up with Departments who have students whose School/Departmental Requirements field has not been updated after the deadline Carefully review all candidates’ files (coursework, milestones, enrollment requirements, GPA, etc) and prepare final degree certification.  Notify departments of students with Incomplete, Waiting, or missing grades. We strongly encourage departments to follow-up on these pending grades in advance. Follow-up with students on any formatting issues with their dissertation or thesis. Submit approvals/denials of all pending Applications for Graduation via KUGS.  Submit final degree lists for all master’s and doctoral degree to be conferred to the Dean of the College.  Submit approved degree lists to Graduate Studies.

10. Graduation E-mail

11. Post-Comp Enrollment

12. Post-Comp Enrollment (cont.) After completing the comprehensive exam, doctoral students are required to be continuously enrolled each semester (including summers) until completion of the degree.  Post-comp doctoral students must initially enroll in a minimum of 6 hours each Fall and Spring semester and 3 hours each Summer. Post-comp enrollment must include within the 6 or 3 required hours at least one dissertation or dissertation-equivalent hour every term, with the exception of the semester in which the comp exam is taken.  (The Office of Graduate Studies maintains a list of pre-approved dissertation equivalents.  You should speak with your advisors to discern if the department has any approved equivalents and if so which is the appropriate course to enroll in). The post-comp enrollment requirement remains in effect as described until the student has completed 18 post-comp hours, or until he or she graduates, whichever comes first. Hours completed during the semester in which the student takes his or her comprehensive exam count toward the required 18 hours, as long as enrollment during that semester follows the requirements described above (the minimum 6-6-3 formula).  Enrollment that semester does not, however, have to include a dissertation or dissertation-equivalent hour within the required 6 or 3 hours.  A student may, under advisement of the department, enroll in more than 6 hours each semester to achieve the 18 hours more quickly (such as 9 hours in the Fall/Spring semesters).

13. Post-Comp Enrollment (cont.) During the semester in which the student is due to complete the 18 hours of post-comp enrollment, he or she may drop down to whatever number of hours is required to complete the 18 (e.g., if the student started the semester with 15 hours of post-comp enrollment completed, only three hours are required). Once the 18-hour requirement has been fulfilled, the student must continue to enroll in at least 1 dissertation or dissertation-equivalent hour each term, including summers, until he or she graduates.   The student's level of enrollment must, however, accurately reflect demands on faculty time and University facilities.  It is imperative that the student consult with his or her department about enrollment needs before reducing hours.  As each students coursework needs are unique, there may be instances where dropping to fewer hours would be detrimental to the student's progress to degree and/or funding, etc. Please note that hours completed in semesters previous to taking the comprehensive exam, even dissertation or dissertation-equivalent hours, do not count toward the post-comp enrollment requirement.

14. GTA/GRA/GA Post-Comp Enrollment All of the post-comp regulations above also apply to students with GTA/GRA/GA appointments.  The only difference is that these students must be certified to drop their enrollment levels.  To complete this certification, the student or department staff should download a copy of the Certification of Eligibility to Enroll in Fewer Than Six Hours form (see GTA Certification below under Related Policies and Forms), secure the necessary department signatures, and submit the form to Courtney Barden (via campus mail or as a scanned PDF to cbarden@ku.edu1). 

15. Checklists, COGA Resources http://clas.ku.edu/coga/graduation/preparing http://clas.ku.edu/coga/graduation/master%27s http://clas.ku.edu/coga/graduation/doctoral

16. Electronic Thesis & Dissertation • COGA’s Role with ETD Submissions: • Verifies that students submit to UMI/ProQuest on or before the Application for Graduation deadline • Reviews submissions for formatting only and alerts students to any formatting errors that must be corrected • Delivers UMI/ProQuest submissions for publishing • Provides Dean’s stamp on ETD Release forms for any student requesting an embargo • Turns all ETD release forms into Graduate Studies

17. ETD Releases Thesis/dissertation title must match what is on the Title/Acceptance pages EXACTLY.

18. ETD Releases Section A.1: “Yes” must be checked AND at least one of the remaining 2 statements must also be checked. Signature is only required for those requesting an Embargo.

19. ETD Resources • http://www.graduate.ku.edu/electronic-thesis-and-dissertation • Library Resource for assistance with formatting: • Pam Rooks: pamrooks@ku.edu