Proposal for a Continuous Enrollment Requirement for Ph.D. Students

Overview of a Continuous Enrollment Requirement for Ph.D. Students

Ph.D. study requires an intensive, long-term investment of effort from doctoral students and from their faculty advisers. To improve the likelihood that students will succeed in their studies, the University of Michigan invests substantial resources in doctoral students, providing significant educational and financial support—tuition, stipend or salary, health benefits—during the students’ time in program. In return, the University expects students to attend to their studies and finish expeditiously, and then contribute in substantial ways to their fields, to society and to the furtherance of knowledge, discovery, and scholarship.

Reflecting the expectation that students make their Ph.D. pursuit the focus of their attention during time in program, and reflecting the institutional resources invested in them as students, most of our peer institutions require that Ph.D. students register continuously from matriculation to degree completion. The University of Michigan, unlike its peers, has not had such a requirement. As a result, many Ph.D. students spend at least some terms in a non-registered status even while they continue to work on completing their degree requirements, work with their faculty advisers, and call on the University’s resources.

Research on the doctoral experience confirms that students and graduate programs benefit from strong connections between faculty and students, and from a program structure that encourages regular contact, progress, and evaluation. During periods of non-registration, students are more likely to drift; even if they connect periodically with their faculty advisors, they lose access to many University services and to the supporting structures that enable steady progress. One important predictor of steady progress in a Ph.D. program and of degree completion is full-time continuous enrollment. When registered, students have an official status recognized by both University and external audiences. Students are connected officially to their faculty mentors, their programs, and the University, and never face questions about their status or eligibility for student services.

Continuous Enrollment Requirement

The Dean and the Executive Board of the Rackham Graduate School are now discussing the adoption of a requirement for continuous registration for Ph.D. students. Ph.D. students would be required to register every fall and winter term from matriculation to degree completion, unless they are on an official leave of absence. With this registration pattern, they would have active student status year-round, with access to the resources and services offered by the University during the summer.

The primary purpose of this proposed requirement is to align the University’s policies with our educational goals – to provide Ph.D. students with an intellectually stimulating environment in which they have opportunities to master their disciplines and conduct independent research and scholarship, and a graduate program that encourages progress in a timely way toward completion of doctoral studies. By asking students to register continuously, we also ensure that students retain official student status throughout their doctoral student career, and ensure that the full array of University student services and resources are available to Ph.D. students throughout their term of study.

Because our goal is educational and not financial, we propose to reduce candidacy tuition rates to a level that generates the same amount of tuition revenue with the new requirement in place as would have been the case with the prior registration requirements. The intent is to keep the cost of tuition for an average student under the new rules exactly the same as the cost of tuition under existing policies.

Planning Timeline

The current proposal for a continuous enrollment requirement is being discussed on campus with groups of faculty, students, and staff this Winter Term. This round of discussions likely will result in revisions to the proposal. The proposal should be finalized by the end of Winter Term 2008 and the University then would announce the adoption of the requirement, with an effective date of Fall Term 2010. The two-year implementation window provides time for current Ph.D. students to accelerate their degree completion if they choose to finish under the old rules. It allows time for schools/colleges and programs to analyze the necessary changes to their staging of aid and other support for Ph.D. students. Administrative areas need the time to develop the policy language and documentation, and make necessary changes to the data systems to support the administration of the requirement and associated policies.

Contact Us

Comments on the proposal or further questions can be sent to Rackham by directing e-mail to Mary Weigelin, Executive Secretary to the Dean

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