Registration and Related Topics

Previous Page: Policies/Procedures

Students must register during one of the formal registration periods. Graduate students, new, returning, or currently enrolled, may register during the priority registration held each semester for the following semester. Students who have not already registered should register during the open registration session. For information on registration, consult the Schedule of Classes or visit the Office of the Registrar website.

Enrollment Limits

Registration above 15 hours must be approved by the Graduate Dean. For registration in the summer, the enrollment limit is 12 hours without approval by the Graduate Dean. If a student is on a graduate assistantship, up to 15 hours of graduate enrollment during the spring or fall semesters or 12 hours during the summer will be allowed without the approved of the Graduate Dean. See Enrollment Guidelines on the Graduate School website.

Registration for Audit

When a student audits a course, that student must register for audit, pay the appropriate fees, and be admitted to class on a space-available basis. Students not formally admitted to a degree program will not have priority for auditing a class. The instructor shall notify the student of the requirements for receiving the mark of “AU” for the course being audited. The instructor and the student’s dean may drop a student from a course being audited if the student is not satisfying the requirements specified by the instructor. The student is to be notified if this action is taken. The only grade or mark that can be given is “AU.” The Graduate School does not normally pay tuition for audited classes for students on assistantship, though petitions to cover audited courses in rare cases may be approved by the Graduate Dean.

Adding and Dropping Courses

A currently enrolled student who has registered during the advance registration period should make any necessary or desired schedule adjustments such as adding or dropping courses or changing course sections during the schedule-adjustment period scheduled for the same semester. More information about adding and dropping courses is available in the Graduate Catalog.

Registration Out of Career

Students who wish to enroll in classes for credit outside of their career (e.g. graduate students who wish to enroll in undergraduate classes for undergraduate credit) should print the appropriate form from the Graduate School Website, and return the form to the office indicated on the form. Students are not able to register themselves out of career.

Retroactive Graduate Credit

Graduate students fully admitted into a degree program may request that up to twelve hours of courses taken in the final 12 month period of their undergraduate degree count toward their graduate degree, if these courses were taken on the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville campus. These courses may not have been used for the undergraduate degree, must be approved by the student’s advisory committee, and must be at the 5000 level or above. Petition will be by the student’s advisory committee or major professor to the Graduate School. More information information about the see the Retroactive Graduate Credit policy page.

Proper Address of Students

All students are responsible for maintaining their addresses with the University and to report any change of address promptly to the Office of the Registrar or to the Graduate School. Failure to do so may result in undelivered grades, registration notices, invoices, invitations, or other official correspondence and announcements.

Identification Cards

Identification cards are made by the Division of Student Affairs during each registration period and at scheduled times and places during the year. The I.D. card can be used as a debit card for purchases at the bookstore or other on-campus locations.

Withdrawal from Registration

A student must take action themselves to withdraw from the University. Withdrawing from the University means withdrawing from all classes that have not been completed up to that time. A student who leaves the University voluntarily before the end of a semester must file and have accepted by his or her academic dean and the Registrar, a Petition for Withdrawal from Registration. Withdrawal must occur prior to the last class day of a semester and follow all University procedures on withdraws. Students who do not withdraw officially from a class that they fail to complete will receive an “F” in that class.

Attendance

Students are expected to be diligent in the pursuit of their studies and in their class attendance. Students have the responsibility of making arrangements satisfactory to the instructor regarding all absences. Such arrangements should be made prior to the absence if possible. Policies of making up work missed as a result of absence are at the discretion of the instructor, and students should inform themselves of their instructor’s policies at the beginning of each semester.

Full-Time Status

Enrollment in nine semester hours (not including audited courses) is considered full-time for graduate students not on assistantship. For graduate assistants or students with research fellowships on 50 percent appointment or more, six semester hours (not including audited courses) of enrollment is considered full-time in the fall and spring semesters. Graduate assistants who are on a 25% or 50% appointment for a five week summer term must earn at least three hours of graduate credit during the summer. However, these credits do not have to be earned in the same session as the appointment, and may be taken at any time during the summer.

Tuition and fees for graduate assistants on 50% appointments for a week summer term will be paid up to a maximum of 6 hours and for graduate assistants on 50% appointments for 10-12 weeks will be paid up to 9 hours. Students not on graduate assistantships or fellowships must be enrolled in six hours (not including audited courses) to be full time in the summer.

Continuous Enrollment

After a doctoral student has passed the candidacy examinations, the student must register for at least one hour of dissertation or graded course work each Fall/Spring semester until the work is completed, whether the student is in residence or away from the campus. Registration in the summer is not required, except if the student is defending in a summer semester. For each semester in which a student fails to register without prior approval of the Dean of the Graduate School, a registration of one hour will be required before the degree is granted. Please see the Graduate School Registration and Leave of Absence Policy.

Use of Electronic Resources of the Library

The use of electronic resources of the University Libraries from a location outside of the library is only available to enrolled students. Students who are enrolled in the spring semester and have pre-registered for the succeeding fall semester may have access to these resources during the intervening summer. Students who are not required to be enrolled for other reasons, who are not pre-registered for the fall, and who wish to use the library resources during the summer must be enrolled in at least one hour of credit in any one of the summer sessions. If a student is not enrolled at the University but is finishing work for the degree, the student’s major professor may request the student be added to UA Connect Connect (uaconnect.uark.edu) as an affiliate student, in order to have access to e-mail and library resources. An e-mail should be sent by the major professor/department chair/program coordinator to the Associate Dean of the Graduate School with the student’s name, student ID number and a reason why the request should be granted.

Grades and Marks

Final grades for courses are “A,” “B,” “C,” “D,” and “F” (except for courses taken in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design which uses a plus/minus system). No credit is earned for courses in which a grade of “F” is recorded. For students admitted to the Graduate School in Fall 2001 or after no credit is earned for courses in which a grade of “F” or “D” is recorded.

More information about grades and marks is found in the Graduate Catalog.