Time Limitations on Completion of Degree Requirements

Students who are enrolled as graduate students at the University of Houston must complete the usual master's degree program within five years of the date of enrollment with a master's degree objective at the University of Houston. Any exceptions to this policy will require a petition approved by the department advisor, chair, college dean, and the Dean of Graduate and Professional Studies. Transfer credit may not apply to any master's degree if the course credit is more than five years old at commencement.

Students who enroll as doctoral candidates must complete their degree requirements within 10 years of the date of first enrollment with a doctoral degree objective. Failure to comply will result in the candidate being ineligible for that doctoral degree.

Note: Students have several different types of degree objectives recorded. The one used for determining the 10-
year rule is the ORD, or Official Reporting Date degree objective. This ORD objective is based on previous
degrees posted (e.g., a BS posted makes you an MS student) and/or the number of hours of graduate credit taken at UH (30 hours). Once the first 30 hours of your program is complete, the students' status changes to a Doctoral status. For more information, please contact your departmental advisor.

Doctoral students who fail to complete their dissertation within five years after completion of the comprehensive examination must retake the examination.

With the exception of programs for which another termination date has been specified, no degree will be granted for a graduate program not completed within five years of its deletion from an issue of the University of Houston catalog.