2020-2021 Graduate Catalog | Southern Illinois University

Southern Illinois University Carbondale
2020 - 2021 Graduate Academic Catalog

Volume 61, Number 1, March 2020

This publication provides information about Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Primary attention is given to its academic programs, rules and regulations, and procedures. Students will be subject to the published requirements in effect when they are admitted to the Graduate School. Students beginning graduate work during the period of time from the start of summer session 2020 through spring semester 2021 are subject to the academic requirements of the Graduate School as specified in this publication. These requirements may be superseded by future publications of the Graduate Catalog. If the requirements are subsequently changed, students may elect either to meet the requirements in force in their particular degree programs immediately prior to the change, or to meet the new requirements. If they elect the former option they shall be guaranteed a minimum period of time from the date that the program requirements were changed within which minimum period they will be permitted to complete the old degree requirements.

This minimum period shall be determined by the department or other degree-program unit, subject to the following two constraints. First, the minimum period prescribed by the department may not exceed the standard Graduate School limitation that credit applied toward fulfillment of requirements for the master’s degree must have been earned within a six-year period preceding the completion of the degree, and that doctoral students must complete degree requirements within five years after admission to candidacy. Second, the minimum period shall encompass no less than two years for master’s degree students and three years for doctoral students, with the exception that students in the last stage of their degree work when requirements change (a master’s student who has completed all requirements except the thesis or research report and the final examination or a doctoral student who has been admitted to Ph.D. candidacy) shall not be subject to the new requirements but may complete their degrees within the standard Graduate School limitations stated above. Students who elect to follow old requirements, but do not complete their work within the minimum period prescribed by the department, shall, unless they were in the last stage of their degree work when requirements changed, be subject to requirements in force at the time they complete their degrees, and shall be subject to the standard Graduate School limitations described above. The University reserves the right to change information contained herein on matters other than curricular requirements without notice when circumstances warrant such action.

The Graduate Catalog covers in detail questions concerning the graduate program of Southern Illinois University Carbondale for the period from summer 2020 through spring 2021. It supersedes Volume 60, Number 1.