General Degree Information

The Department of English offers programs leading to the degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy. The general requirements for both degrees are spelled out in the Graduate School Bulletin, and each student is responsible for knowing what they are. This responsibility cannot be overemphasized. The Graduate School Bulletin is the final authority on all procedural matters relating to graduate study. You may access the Graduate School Bulletin online at http://www.rgs.uky.edu/gs/bulletin/current/bulletin.html. Many forms and deadlines are involved in graduate programs, especially for students who plan to receive degrees in a given semester. Make sure that you understand what needs to be done, and give the graduate staff assistant, the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), and the Graduate School enough time to process the paperwork. Last minute requests cannot always be honored.

Time Limits

The MA must be completed within eight years of beginning the degree; a student may petition the Graduate Council for an extension of up to four years. The PhD must be completed within five years of passing the Qualifying Examination or else the Graduate Council must be petitioned so that the Qualifying Examination may be retaken, and the degree must be completed within ten years from the time that the original successful Qualifying Examination occurred. For an elaboration of these procedures, please consult The Graduate School Bulletin.

Doctoral students who are teaching assistants must pass their oral examination by the end of their fourth year of teaching in order to have their assistantship renewed.

Termination

The Director of Graduate Studies monitors the progress of all graduate students. The Director may notify, in writing, students not making satisfactory progress toward the degree and may, in consultation with the departmental Graduate Committee, begin termination procedures for such students. Unsatisfactory progress occurs when a student goes beyond the time limits indicated above under "satisfactory progress," when a student's overall graduate GPA falls below 3.0, when the student's GPA falls below 3.0 in any semester, or when a student has received more than two incompletes in any one academic year. The Committee may also initiate termination procedures when a student has been found guilty of cheating or plagiarism as defined in the University handbook, Student Rights and Responsibilities. See appendix for procedures. 

A student is automatically terminated, without any of the procedures described therein, if:

1. the MA exam is failed twice;
2. the PhD written qualifying exam is failed three times;
3. the PhD oral qualifying exam is failed twice;
4. the PhD dissertation defense is failed twice.

Residence Requirement

A PhD student must satisfy Graduate School residence requirements as outlined in The Graduate School Bulletin.

Academic Load

The normal load for a non-teaching graduate student in English is nine credit hours; under no circumstances may it exceed fifteen hours. The Graduate School considers an English teaching assistant who teaches two courses per semester while enrolled in two courses to be in full-time residence. A student may enroll for up to four credit hours in the four-week summer session and up to nine hours in the eight-week summer session.

Full-time vs. Part-time

After their first year, TAs often take two classes when they teach two classes. This course load counts as full-time status for the Graduate School, which will not deduct FICA from TA paychecks; however, the Registrar considers this a part-time load. Zero-credit language courses count toward student course loads as if they were normal three-credit courses. The Registrar and the Financial Aid Office do not count audits toward student course loads; the Graduate School decides on a semester-by-semester basis. The Registrar considers as full-time only those students who take a course load of nine hours. Students may wish to take the following into consideration before deciding on whether to be full-time or part-time:

1. Student loans: check with your financial aid officers to see if they will accept six rather than nine hours. They may not and may require immediate payment of the loan if the course load is only six hours.
2. Only full-time students are automatically reminded to validate their ID's; part-time students must do without a reminder.
3. Part-time students must contact the Student Health Service directly for health insurance.
4. Part-time students are not eligible for student tickets to athletic events; for questions, consult the Athletic Office.

Transfer of Credit

With the approval of the Director of Graduate Studies and the Dean of the Graduate School, a maximum of nine semester hours of regular graduate course credits earned with a grade of A or B may be applied to the Master's program in English if earned in any of the following ways:

1. as a post-baccalaureate student at UK;
2. as a student in a graduate degree program which resulted in an awarded degree;
3. as work taken as a graduate student in another graduate program;
4. as a visiting student.

Effective Fall 2008,  9 credit hours also may be applied to a doctoral degree. The transferable hours include all post-baccalaureate work, graduate work taken at another regionally-accredited university or as a student in another graduate program at the University of Kentucky.  The doctoral transfer policy would NOT apply in cases where a prior master's degree is being used to satisfy 18 hours of the pre-qualifying residency requirement.  Course credits applied toward a previously awarded graduate degree cannot be transferred.

Transfer of independent work, research, thesis or dissertation credit is not permitted.  However, graduate courses taken in other programs may be applied to distribution requirements and course requirements with the approval of the Director of Graduate Studies. Students should make their requests in writing and attach relevant syllabi. 

However, English graduate students cannot count 400 level courses with the "G" designation in English but can take them in other departments for graduate credit.

Filing for Degrees

To be eligible for a degree, students must file an application for degree card online with the Graduate School within thirty days after the beginning of the semester (fifteen days in the summer session) in which they expect to complete their work. Students can do this using the myUK portal (https://myuk.uky.edu//irj/portal).  They should click on the Student Services tab, then myRecords, and then Graduate Degree Application.  The form will be forwarded to the Director of Graduate Studies for his or her approval before being sent on to the Graduate School.

Satisfactory Progress

In addition to maintaining a minimal GPA of 3.0, "satisfactory progress" includes not receiving two incompletes in any given year, and also the following time guidelines:

Non-teaching students:

1. Full-time, non-teaching MA students should expect to finish their degree within four semesters if they do not attend summer school.
2. Full-time, non-teaching PhD students who begin study with an MA should expect to finish their degrees in eight semesters if they do not attend summer school. A recommended schedule is as follows:

Semesters 1-4: Course work

Semesters 5-6: Pass Qualifying Examination. The exam must be passed by semester 8 for a teaching assistantship to be renewed.

Semesters 7-8: Write dissertation        

Teaching Assistants:

1. Full-time MA teaching assistants should expect to finish their degree within six semesters if they do not attend summer school.
2. Full-time PhD teaching assistants should expect to finish their degree within ten semesters if they do not attend summer school. A recommended schedule is as follows:

Semesters 1-4: course work

Semesters 5-6: pass Qualifying Examination. The exam must be passed by semester 8 for a teaching assistantship to be renewed.

Semesters 7-10: write dissertation

Incompletes

All incomplete grades must be made up within one academic year, or the grade automatically becomes an E. More than two incompletes in any one academic year will automatically cause the student's progress to be reviewed by the Graduate Committee.