In 1997, the Graduate Council approved several regulations that establish time boundaries for graduate study. In developing the new regulations, the Graduate Council sought to put in place policies that would encourage students to complete their degrees in a timely manner. During the course of their discussions the Council sought the advice of the Deans, the Department Chairs, and others. The new regulations received unanimous endorsement and have been adopted.

The following wording concerning Candidacy, Time to Defense and Time to Degree were taken directly from the current Rice University General Announcements.

Candidacy

Candidacy marks a midpoint in the course of graduate education. Achieving candidacy for the Ph.D. implies that a graduate student has:

1. completed required course work,
2. passed required exams to demonstrate his/her comprehensive grasp of the subject area,
3. demonstrated the ability for clear oral and written communication, and
4. shown the ability to carry on scholarly work in his/her subject area.

Students must file their applications for approval of Ph.D. and M.A./M.S. candidacy in the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies before November 1 for mid-year conferral and before February 1 for May commencement. Students may take the final oral examination in defense of their thesis only after the dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies approves their candidacy.

Ph.D. students must be approved for candidacy before the beginning of the ninth semester of their residency at Rice. Master's students must be approved for candidacy before the beginning of the fifth semester of their residency at Rice.

Thus, Ph.D. and M.A./M.S. students will not be allowed to enroll in a graduate program after their eighth and fourth semester, respectively, unless they have been approved for candidacy.

Time to Thesis Defense

Ph.D. students must defend their theses before the end of the sixteenth semester of their residency at Rice. Master's students must defend their theses before the end of the eighth semester of their residency at Rice.

A student who does not meet the relevant deadline will be dropped from Rice.

Time to Degree

Time to degree -- Ph.D. students are required to complete their program, including thesis defense, within ten years of initial enrollment. Masters students are required to complete their program, including thesis defense, within five years of initial enrollment. In both cases, students have a limit of six additional months from the date of defense to submit their theses in the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. These time bounds include any period in which the student was not enrolled or enrolled part-time, for whatever reason.

This policy sets strict time limits on time to degree and includes any time taken as an approved leave of absence.

What does this mean in practice?

As students progress in their studies they need to keep in mind that they must be approved for candidacy in order to enroll after your fourth year of study (if a Ph.D. student) or after two years of study (if a M.A./M.S.) Since it is the department that establishes the requirements that must be fulfilled before petitioning for candidacy, graduate students need to talk to their department if these requirements are not absolutely clear to them. This is the student¹s responsibility. A student who does not meet the applicable deadline will be dropped from Rice.

These policies also establish strict time limits on time to degree. If you are an M.S./M.A. student you must defend your thesis by the end of your eighth semester of enrollment. If you fail to defend by this time, you will be dropped from your graduate program. Similarly, Ph.D. students must defend no later than the end of your sixteenth semester. Ph.D. students will not be allowed to enroll after sixteen semesters of study. However, in all cases you have an additional six months to submit your thesis to the Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies Office.

While an approved leave of absence does not count against the clock for candidacy or defense it does count against time to degree. Students will not be granted an accumulated leave of absence of more than two years. Thus, under no circumstances will a student be retained in an M.A./M.S. program for longer than five years after initial enrollment. For Ph.D. students, ten years is the absolute time limit to the degree.

While these guidelines formally apply to students who enter Rice in Fall 1997 and later, the Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies Office will take into account the spirit of what the regulations seek to accomplish in acting on graduate student petitions.