To remain within the ECE PhD Program, students must continue to make acceptable academic progress, which includes but is not limited to remaining registered except during approved leaves of absence and making acceptable progress toward their PhD Program of Work, which is based on classroom coursework, and toward their PhD Dissertation research. Students admitted prior to fall 2018, with approval from their supervising professor(s), can choose to follow the older or newer rules, procedures, and expectations for academic progress. Students admitted in fall 2018 or later must follow the newer rules, procedures, and expectations for academic progress.
For more information, contact ECE Graduate Coordinator, Melanie Gulick, melanie.gulick@mail.utexas.edu, or visit Guides and Procedures | Texas ECE - Electrical & Computer Engineering at UT Austin (utexas.edu)
For students admitted prior to fall 2018 who choose to follow the older procedure, remaining within the ECE PhD Program includes finding a PhD Dissertation Supervisor; satisfying any academic-track-dependent PreQualifying requirements; establishing a PhD Qualifying and presumptive PhD Dissertation Committee, passing the PhD Qualifying Examination, and advancing to Candidacy; and, finally, writing and successfully defending their Dissertation, each within a reasonable time frame. For students admitted in fall 2018 or later who must follow the newer procedure, and for students admitted prior to fall 2018 who choose the newer procedure [with approval from their supervising professor(s)], remaining within the ECE PhD Program includes finding a PhD Dissertation Supervisor; establishing a PhD Dissertation Committee, performing the Candidacy Evaluation, and advancing to Candidacy; passing the Progress Review; and, finally, writing and successfully defending their PhD Dissertation, each within a reasonable time frame.
Older Procedure: Expectations for acceptable academic progress on Research
The following figure summarizes the itemized expectations for acceptable academic progress for research in terms of the required milestones and their upper time limits for completion, and illustrates how time is initially marked in course hours and then in years.
Toward defining these expectations, in the figure above, “course hours” and “attempted course hours” includes any . Acceptable progress includes meeting certain milestones within the program, including the following:
- Maintain a minimum graduate GPA of 3.33 at the University of Texas at Austin.
- Find a Ph.D supervisor by the time the student has attempted 33 hours of academic coursework.
- Complete the Candidacy process within one year of attempting 33 hours of academic coursework.
- Complete the Progress review prior to the 9th long semester after attempting 33 hours.
- Complete the dissertation and dissertation defense prior to 11th long semester after attempting 33 hours.
Toward defining these expectations, “course hours” and “attempted course hours” includes any hours of coursework attempted, completed or not, while within the Graduate Program at The University of Texas of Texas at Austin—which includes graduate and undergraduate classroom courses taken for a grade or credit/no credit no credit and individual instruction courses such as MS Report, MS Thesis, internship, research problems, and PhD and PhD Dissertation courses—and any hours of coursework to be used toward a graduate degree at The University of University of Texas at Austin that were taken while not within the graduate program at The University of Texas at Austin—which may include graduate coursework from another institution not used toward an undergraduate degree and graduate and graduate coursework reserved for graduate credit while still an undergraduate at The University of Texas at Austinat Austin. (Note that the 33 hours of attempted coursework discussed here with regard to the expectations for acceptable for acceptable academic progress on research is not to be confused with the 30 hours of graduate level regular classroom regular classroom coursework to be used for the PhD program of work, although there will be overlap.)
Newer Procedure: Expectations for acceptable academic progress on Research
The following figure summarizes the itemized
Academic Watch
Failure to meet milestones will result in the student being placed automatically on Academic Watch for that long semester. While under Academic Watch, a holistic review will be performed by the ECE GSC. This review will judge if the student is making acceptable academic progress, and if they are not making progress, if additional semesters of Academic Watch is warranted. There are four outcomes for students on Academic Watch.
- The student will meet the itemized set of expectations for acceptable academic progress
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- prior to the next long semester, and, thus, be allowed to continue within the ECE PhD Program during the next long semester. The student will be removed from Academic Watch for the next long semester, unless the student then fails to meet the itemized set of expectations for acceptable academic progress at the beginning of that next long semester.
- The student will not meet the itemized set of expectations for academic progress prior to the next long semester but will be found by holistic review to be making acceptable academic progress already or prior to the next long semester and, thus, be allowed to continue within the ECE PhD Program. However, the student necessarily will remain on Academic Watch through the next long semester at least because of the continuing need for holistic review to judge academic progress.
- The student will not meet the itemized set of expectations for academic progress nor be found by holistic review to be making acceptable academic prior to the next long semester, but will be granted one or more additional semesters of Academic Watch to achieve acceptable academic progress by representatives of the ECE or by the ECE GSC as a whole based on the holistic review.
- Or the student will not meet the itemized set of expectations for academic progress nor be found by holistic review to be making acceptable academic prior to the next long semester, and will not be granted additional semesters of Academic Watch to achieve acceptable academic progress by representatives of the ECE GSC nor by the ECE GSC as a whole based on the holistic review, which will result in a recommendation for dismissal of the student from the PhD Program to the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin.
A student admitted as MSE + PhD seeking who is dismissed from the PhD Program for lack of acceptable academic progress prior to obtaining their MSE will be recommended to the Graduate School for the MSE (only) Program, providing that he/she is in good standing with respect to the MSE Program in ECE. A student admitted as PhD‐seeking only who is dismissed from the PhD Program may be recommended to the Graduate School for the MSE Program as appropriate and providing that he/she is in good standing with respect to the MSE Program in ECE.
Unless stated otherwise in a specific case, a student who has been dismissed from the ECE PhD Program, whether remaining in the MSE Program or having left the Graduate Program entirely, may be able to reapply and be admitted to the PhD Program under certain conditions if and when circumstances that lead to their dismissal change sufficiently.