View in portable document format.

2480 DOCUMENTS OF THE GENERAL FACULTY RECOMMENDATION FOR CHANGE IN THE RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT IN THE UT AUSTIN UNDERGRADUATE CATALOG   Professor Robert Duke (music) submitted the following legislation on behalf of the Educational Policy Committee. The secretary has classified this as general legislation. It will be presented to the Faculty Council for action at its meeting on March 17, 2003. <signed> John R. Durbin, Secretary The Faculty Council Posted on the Faculty Council Web site (http://www.utexas.edu/faculty/council/) on March 4, 2003. Modifications made on March 13, 2003. Paper copies are available on request from the Office of the General Faculty, FAC 22, F9500. 2481   RECOMMENDATION FOR CHANGE IN THE RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT IN THE UT AUSTIN UNDERGRADUATE CATALOG   RECOMMENDATION: 1. That the University require that students earn a minimum of sixty hours credit in residence in order to obtain a baccalaureate degree. 2. That the following changes be made in the undergraduate General Requirements for Graduation in chapter 1 of The Undergraduate Catalog, 2002-2004. (The current catalog is available on the Web at http://www.utexas.edu/student/registrar/catalogs/ug02-04/ch01/ch01c.html#general) On page 17, in chapter 1, section "GRADUATION," subsection "GENERAL REQUIREMENTS," make the following changes: GENERAL REQUIREMENTS To receive an undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin a student must fulfill all requirements for the degree as set forth in a catalog under which he or she is eligible to graduate and any special requirements of the college or school and department offering the degree, as well as the following minimum general requirements: [No changes in number 1.] 2. A student must fulfill the following requirements regarding coursework taken in residence. Residence credit includes only courses taken at the University of Texas at Austin; it does not include credit by examination or courses taken by extension or correspondence, and does not include online courses that are recorded as transfer credit. Additional requirements imposed by a college or school, if any, are given in the college's chapter of this catalog. a. a. The student must complete in residence at least [two long-session semesters, or an equivalent period, and at least thirty] sixty semester hours of coursework counted toward the degree. b. Twenty-four of the last thirty semester hours counted toward the degree must be completed in residence. [However, among components of the University of Texas System, a] c. A student may transfer additional coursework to the degree-granting institution with the approval of the appropriate dean. A student seeking such a transfer must file a written petition at the degree-granting institution with his or her academic dean, who may approve the transfer of additional credit. d. At least six semester hours of advanced coursework in the major must be completed in residence. [No changes in numbers 3 and 4.] RATIONALE: Students who receive degrees from The University of Texas at Austin should have completed a significant portion of their coursework while in residence at the University. Current policy requires that thirty hours be taken in residence over a minimum of two long semesters. It is the consensus of the Educational Policy Committee that a larger proportion of degree requirements should be completed in residence: approximately half the credit hour total. Data from the graduating classes in 2000 and 2001 indicate that fewer than 7% of our graduates are granted degrees with their having taken fewer than sixty credit hours in residence. Thus, the proposed change in policy would affect only a small proportion of the student body. But a sixty-hour minimum residency requirement reflects the view that being on a university campus and participating in a university community is an essential part of an undergraduate’s experience. Setting the minimum requirement to sixty 2482 hours would ensure that all students who hold UT degrees had devoted a significant portion of their time completing coursework as part of the community of The University of Texas at Austin. Practices and procedures at UT Austin are often compared to comparable institutions elsewhere in the United States. Printed below are the residency requirements at other major institutions: Michigan 60 Illinois 60 Virginia half of credits required for degree UNC Chapel Hill 45 UC Berkeley 45 Washington 45 of last 60 Iowa 45 of last 60 Texas A & M 36 Ohio State 45 quarter hours Wisconsin 30 of last 30 TEXAS 30