Departmental Graduate Handbooks

Departmental Graduate Handbooks

Departmental Graduate Handbooks

Research clearly shows that clear expectations lead to better retention, degree completion, and efficient degree progress as well as greater student satisfaction. Your program handbook provides a guide for students and is usually their first and main sources of information about policies and procedures.

Your program handbook should contain the following:

  • Details of degree requirements, identification of core courses, differing requirements for different options/concentrations, program requirements/limits for transfer credit, etc. This should include accurate information about expected time to degree.
  • Rights and responsibilities of graduate students.
  • Description of departmental structure; how decisions affecting students are made. How students may participate in departmental matters.
  • Departmental resources and how students may access them. This should include opportunities for professional development.
  • Departmental policies and procedures for funding: how many years can a student expect funding? What are the priorities for funding? Under what conditions may funding be suspended or terminated?
  • TA and RA information including rights and responsibilities.
  • TA training.
  • Define the internal appeal process for decisions affecting a student. Where students can go for help.
  • Description of how first year advising works.
  • Departmental satisfactory academic progress. See http://grad.arizona.edu/node/527 for suggestions. These should include a timeline by which various milestones should be completed and consequences for not meeting those deadlines.
  • Details about annual evaluations.
  • Expectations for publishing.
  • Rules and procedures for comprehensive exams: when should they be taken? May they be repeated? If so, under what circumstances? Criteria for passing? Who grades? How long with the grading take? Who may serve on comp committees. Are there requirements for committee members from outside the department?
  • Departmental policy for incompletes: required contract, is there a limit on how many outstanding incompletes a student may have and still be in good academic standing, etc?
  • Norms for faculty behavior. How long should a student expect before receiving feedback on dissertation drafts, etc? How often should a student expect to meet with his/her advisor?
  • Guidance or templates for dissertation proposals. Who may serve on dissertation committees and now many members are required.
  • Any departmental forms

Other suggestions for your handbook:

  • Do not copy information from the graduate college website. Do not put in a lot of links which may change over time. Best to simply direct to grad.arizona.edu from where students may find the most recent information on policies, deadlines, etc.
  • Review DGS and Grad Coordinators’ tool kits on grad college website for ideas, examples.
  • Remember time to degree and completion are increasingly important measures for evaluating your program. Review your curriculum and requirements for opportunities to streamline. Are there requirements that tend to bog students down? Are there support mechanisms you can put in place to help students over these hurdles?
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