Office of Graduate Studies | University of South Florida



Research and Feedback/Concerns on Enrollment – “Full-time” student:

STONYBROOK

To be enrolled as a "full time graduate student" our Grad school requires students to take course loads as follows - Fall & Spring:

G1 (less than 24 grad credits, masters) 12 cr.

G2 (24+ grad credits,masters)  9 cr.

G3 (less than 24 grad credits, Doctoral) 12 cr.

G4 (24+ grad credits, doctoral) 9 cr.

G5  (All but dissertation, Doctoral)  9 cr.

We don't have summer enrollment minimums.  



Lori Carron - Stony Brook University, Graduate School

FEEDBACK

Dr. Wecker –

I am really concerned about how this will affect my NIH grant, which pays tuition for my student (who has not yet progressed to candidacy) and has a fixed budget for the next 3 years.

Dr. Alex Levine –

My department's primary source of funding for graduate students (>90%) is TA appointments.  Would the 12-credit hour requirement for Fall and Spring apply to full-time TAs?  Second, would tuition waivers for TAs continue to cover only 9 credits?  If the answer to one or both of these questions is 'yes', then the change would pretty much ruin us.

Dr. Liller’s response: Tuition waivers would cover all requirements-not less.

USF College of Behavioral and Community Sciences Response

After receiving your email on the exploration of the FT status of students, I asked for some feedback from some of our chairs/program directors. 

Most were concerned about the impact on grants that support doctoral students.  This could increase the cost of RA’s in the grant budget and the grant budgets are already pressed to pay for tuition waivers.  One impact could be that fewer students would be able to be supported on grants.

One program indicated the change would negatively affect the students and would require a major change in the structure of the programs.

Another program said it would be a problem for their part-time program unless exceptions were made for part-time programs.

Only one program said it would not have an impact on their students. 

Hope this feedback helps as the Council moves forward with their discussions.

Catherine Batsche

RUTGERS

Rutgers is bonkers, with different rules for different schools. Most tend to be 9 or more credits (I assume for the academic year, without reference to summer, but I can check with a friend at Rutgers). In psych and (for Camden only) business, it’s 12. But students with assistantships have 6 “E credits” that count, too. And for international students’ visa issues, “full course of study” is defined differently for Rutgers from full-time registration. And the “E credits” for assistantships don’t count in terms of veteran registrations.

The main graduate school,

For most purposes, a full-time student is defined as one who is registered for 9 or more credits. Graduate and teaching assistants who hold standard half-time (one-third line) academic appointments register their assistantships for 6 E credits (for which no tuition fee is to be paid). These 6 E credits, together with 3 credits of courses or research, qualify them as full-time students for official purposes. (Graduate and teaching assistants on partial appointments register for proportionately fewer E credits.) All courses, including both courses of research and regular courses undertaken "not-for-credit" (E and N prefixes), are counted in measuring the student's recordable program of work. These regulations govern student fees, statistical records, residence requirements, and other issues affected by definitions of full-time and part-time status. Some exceptions to the 9-credit rule may occur through arrangements with relevant administrative offices, especially for students who have already accumulated the minimum number of credits required for their degrees. 

The graduate school of applied and professional psychology,

A full-time student is defined as one who is enrolled for 12 or more credits; a part-time student is one who registers for less than 12 credits. All courses, including practicum placements and audited courses taken "not for credit," are totaled in determining a student's status. A full-time program averages 12 to 15 credits per semester. The maximum program is normally 18 credits, although under some circumstances, additional credits may be permitted with the approval of the department chairperson.

Students engaged in part-time employment outside the university that averages 16 to 30 hours per week may not register for more than 9 course credits per semester.

Full-time graduate/teaching assistants register their assistantship for 6 E credits. These 6 E credits plus at least 6 additional course credits constitute full-time status. All courses, including official audits, are counted in determining a student's recordable program of work. These regulations govern tuition charges, student fees, statistical records, residence requirements, and other issues affected by this definition.

Graduate school of ed,

For statistical, billing, and veteran certification purposes, a full-time student is defined as one who is taking 9 or more graduate credits. Those taking fewer than 9 credits are part-time students. All courses, including those taken "not-for-credit," are counted in computing the credits taken, except for veteran (VA) certification.

Rutgers-Camden,

The designation of graduate students as full- or part-time is necessary for the regulations governing tuition charges, student fees, statistical records, time limits for degrees, residence requirements, and any other issues affected by such status. A graduate student registered for 9 or more credits has full-time status; a student registered for fewer than 9 credits has part-time status; 6 credits is half-time status. The School of Business–Camden requires a master of business administration student to be registered for 12 or more credits to have full-time status. In addition to regular coursework, the following also are included in the calculation of credits: research courses, regular courses taken not-for-credit, and graduate and teaching assistantships (usually 6 credits each). Graduate and teaching assistants must remain in good standing in their own programs. In addition to their half-time academic appointments, assistants are required to register for a minimum of 6 credits of coursework or research, thereby qualifying for full-time status.

Rutgers-Newark,

The designation of students as full or part time is necessary for the regulations governing tuition charges, student fees, statistical records, time limits for degrees, residence requirements, and any other issues affected by such status. For most purposes, a student who has registered for 9 or more credits has full-time status, and a student registered for 8 or fewer credits has part-time status.

In addition to regular coursework, the following also are included in the calculation of credits: research courses, regular courses taken not-for-credit, and graduate and teaching assistantships (usually 6 credits each). Graduate and teaching assistants must remain in good standing in their own programs and must maintain an average of B or better. This is also true for all graduate students in their respective programs, i.e., B or better grade average. In addition to their half-time academic appointments, assistants are required to register for a minimum of 6 credits of coursework or research, which qualifies them for full-time status.

Then there’s the following “clarification” of Full Course of Study vs. Full-Time Registration (for international students),

As a condition of maintaining their legal status in the U.S., federal regulations require F-1 and J-1 students to pursue a "full course of study" at all times other than designated school vacation periods. For most students at Rutgers-New Brunswick/Piscataway, this means being registered for a full-time credit load, i.e., a minimum of 12 credits if an undergraduate student, or a minimum of 9 credits for a graduate student.

There are cases, however, in which regulations consider a student to be "pursuing a full course of study" even though he or she is NOT actually registered for a full-time credit load. For example, a doctoral student in Mechanical Engineering who has completed all required coursework and credits but is still conducting dissertation research might be considered to be "pursuing a full course of study" even though not registered for 9 credits. In such a case, Graduate School-NB policy dictates the minimum number of credits for which the student must register, and that number of credits would meet the "full course of study" requirement.

Regulations define four broad circumstances in which F-1/J-1 students who are registered for less than a full-time credit load are nonetheless considered to be maintaining legal status by meeting the "full course of study" requirement. Those circumstances are:

• Certain general academic reasons

• Certain Rutgers-specific academic policies that define part-time registration as a "full course of study"

• Documented medical conditions necessitating reduced credits or leave of absence

• Fewer than full-time credit load remaining in final semester before graduating only

Graduate School Policies Related to Research Conduct

SUNY – University of Buffalo



“As a guide to those engaged in scholarly activity, and other interested parties, the University at Buffalo has adopted the following principles of ethical conduct which incorporate and expand upon those developed by the Society of Sigma Xi, the honorary research society of North America. This list does not purport to be all-inclusive.

• Honesty and integrity in research hold the highest priority.

• Only honest data are used.

• No data are taken from other sources without proper and clear attribution of source.

• Fabrication, falsification and plagiarism of data are violations of research integrity.

• Data are obtained by processes that comply with State and Federal requirements affecting specific rules of research conduct.

• All persons named as authors should concur and should have made a definable major contribution to the work reported. Minor contributions should be explicitly acknowledged in the work. Co-authorship should not be conferred or accepted solely as an honor or a reward for providing resources.

• All authors of a manuscript prepared for publication must have confidence in the integrity of the data and should be prepared to take responsibility for the resultant paper's contents in precisely the same measure as they stand to take credit.

• After analysis and publication of research results, data are willingly shared with others.

• The data gathering process or data sources are clearly described or made available, allowing independent replication or source verification.

• In these principles, 'Data' is used throughout in an inclusive sense, extending to arguments, bibliographies, and phraseology.”

From the College of Arts and Sciences, regarding the Chair’s assessment of candidates going up for tenure:



• In the cases of joint authorship or collaborative work, the Chair should try to indicate the extent and nature of the candidate's contribution to the published or ongoing work. If there is extensive co-authorship with a dissertation mentor or post-doctoral supervisor, the Chair should explain in what way(s) the research is independent from the mentor. The establishment of an independent research career is in most cases an expected criterion for being awarded tenure. The Chair should also clarify the practice within the discipline of listing co-authors on publications: Is the lead author listed first? Last? Or are authors listed alphabetically regardless of contribution?”

SUNY

Graduate Student Full-Time Status at SUNY – University of Buffalo



Full-Time Status

“All graduate students must be registered for a minimum of 12 credit hours during each fall and spring semester or a minimum of 9 hours if the student holds a graduate, teaching, or research assistantship to be considered full-time by certain outside agencies/organizations such as lending institutions, health insurance carriers, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, etc.

Under certain circumstances, students can be certified full-time even though they are registered for fewer than 12 credits (or fewer than 9 credits if they concurrently hold an assistantship). A student must have on file an Application to Candidacy approved through departmental level, must be registered for between 1 and 11 credits, and must be working on his/her thesis, final project, or dissertation, or preparing for a comprehensive exam, or participating in a University-approved foreign exchange program extensively enough according to the following schedule:

|Semester Credits Registered: |Number of Weekly Hours required (in addition to in-class hours) for Certified Full-Time Status: |

|12 |0 |

|11 |3 |

|10 |6 |

|9 |9 |

|8 |12 |

|7 |15 |

|6 |18 |

|5 |21 |

|4 |24 |

|3 |27 |

|2 |30 |

|1 |33 |

Maximum Credit Hour Overrides

Graduate students may register for no more than 19 credit hours per semester. The chair or director of graduate studies interested in allowing students to exceed this maximum credit hour limit must submit a letter of justification to the Graduate School for review. In considering such requests, the Graduate School will not grant the 19-credit override to any student who has less than a 3.0 overall average or who carries two or more incomplete (I) and/or resign (R) grades.

Continuous Registration Requirement

Graduate students must register for (and pay all tuition and fees not covered by a tuition scholarship) a minimum of one credit hour each fall and spring term until ALL requirements for the degree are completed. If continuous registration is impossible at any time, the student must secure a Leave of Absence from the Graduate School. Failure to secure a Leave of Absence by the end of the first week of the semester in which the Leave is to begin will result in a $350 reactivation fine being assessed to the student's account when the student subsequently registers for classes. Students may not be on a Leave of Absence in the semester immediately preceding degree conferral. Under some circumstances, the continuous registration requirement may be waived for the semester immediately prior to degree conferral if the student has an approved Application to Candidacy on file in the Graduate School, will not be using any University services or faculty time, and has submitted all required conferral materials to the Graduate School prior to the first day of the semester. Students may request a waiver of continuous registration by filing a Graduate Student Petition Form with the Graduate School.”

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