General University Requirements are the minimum requirements of what is needed for any undergraduate student to graduate. Yet, these requirements are sometimes overlooked by academic advisors, and some students find at graduation time that they are short upper-division credits, UAF residence credits, or do not have the minimum gpa required for coursework in the major.
Minimum Number of Credits Required
Sometimes students may complete their major/minor, degree, and Core curriculum requirements and still require additional credits to meet the minimum number of credits required for the degree program. These additional elective credits may be course credits taken for “fun’ (i.e. Recreation courses), or course credits that are related to the student’s degree program. The minimum passing grade for elective course credits is a D- (0.7).
Residence Credit
Residence Credit is credit earned through UAF. Occupational Endorsement (OE), Certificate (Cert), Associate (Assoc) and Baccalaureate (Bacc) residency requirements outline the minimum amount of UAF residence credits required to graduate. There is no residence credit requirement for the final semester of study, so students may complete a degree with transfer credits from another university as long as the student has the minimum number of residence credits overall, within the major and minor, and within upper-division credits (Bacc). UAF Assoc programs approved through Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges (SOC) network require fewer UAF residence credits.
Sometimes students get residence credit confused with the requirements for applying for Alaska residency for tuition purposes, however, they are two different policies: the residency requirement for residence credit is an academic policy, and residency criteria resident tuition is an admission and bursar policy concerning the amount of tuition charged based on the location where the student resides. Students may submit an Application for Resident Tuition Assessment form to the Office of Admissions and the Registrar if they think they are eligible for Alaska resident tuition.
Course Credits
Students must complete at least 39 upper-division credits (300 — 499 courses) to graduate with a bachelor’s degree. Furthermore, there are UAF or UA residency requirements for upper-division courses. At least 15 of those credits must be completed at UAF and 9 credits at another University of Alaska (UA) university; or 24 of the 39 credits must be completed at UAF.
Although all residence and non-residence course credits are posted onto a student’s transcript, course credits may only be counted once toward degree completion. Course credits listed more than once on a student’s transcript is assessed as follows: the most recent UAF credits for the course are the credits and grade used towards degree requirements. UAF residence credits for a course take priority over non-residence credits for that same course.
A course may be used more than once to fulfill OE, certificate, degree, major, and minor requirements unless the academic department of the degree program states otherwise. So, a Bachelor of Science student who is majoring in Biological Sciences and minoring in Biochemistry may be allowed to use the organic chemistry course to fulfill both the major and minor requirements. However the course credits for organic chemistry may only be used one time towards the total number of credits.
Bachelor’s degree students in their last year of study, who are planning on obtaining a graduate degree at UAF, may reserve one or more 400 or 600 level courses for the graduate degree. The credits may not be used towards the bachelor’s degree program and must be approved by the graduate program advisory committee to count towards the student’s intended graduate degree. Students must submit a written request to the Office of Admissions and the Registrar during the first four (4) weeks of the semester to request to reserve course(s).
Grade Point Average (GPA) and Minimum Grade Requirements
Although the minimum grade requirement for courses in a major is a C- (1.7), a student who obtains a high proportion of C- grades will run afoul of the minimum cumulative, major, and minor grade point average required which is at the C grade level (2.0).
Catalog Year
UAF courses do not expire, so courses taken five, ten, or twenty years ago are still valid as long as the course still meets degree or major requirements. There is also no maximum time limit for students to complete their degree program, as long as students choose within the past seven (7) catalog years for Bacc students or five (5) catalog years for Assoc, Cert, or OE students wherein they were enrolled at UAF. Students are assigned the catalog year in which they were first admitted to UAF, but may change catalog years as long as the student was enrolled at UAF in a degree program during that catalog year.
For example, Student J started taking courses at UAF in fall 2006 and left UAF in summer 2009 because J got an amazing job offer. J returned to UAF in 2015 to complete J’s senior year since J discovered that a university degree would make that amazing job even more amazing. When J applies for graduation in spring 2015, J may choose to graduate under the 2008 — 2009 or 2014 — 2015 catalog year degree requirements. J cannot graduate under the 2006 — 2007 or 2007 – 2008 catalog years since that is more than seven (7) catalog years prior to J’s anticipated graduation date. J may not use the 2009 — 2010, 2010 — 2011, 2011- 2012, 2012 — 2013, or 2013-2014 catalog years since J was not enrolled at UAF during that time.
Second Degree Requirements
Students who have already completed a degree program may complete a second degree at UAF by meeting all of UAF’s degree requirements and completing additional credits based on the OE, Assoc, or Bacc degree requirements. Certificate programs have no second degree requirements.
