Students are responsible for the proper completion of their academic programs. They must be familiar with the Graduate Bulletin as well as all additional academic regulations promulgated by individual schools and departments.
The offices of the deans and department chairs, in cooperation with the advisers and faculty, endeavor to follow the academic progress of all students, and students are encouraged to seek counsel whenever there is a need. If advisers are unable to resolve problems satisfactorily, they will refer students to others as deemed appropriate and necessary.
In order to aid advising, students are responsible for maintaining current mailing addresses on file with the Office of the University Registrar, as well as with the schools and departments in which they are enrolled.
Students also are required to obtain an official VCU student email account within one week of the beginning of the first semester of enrollment and are responsible for reading in a timely fashion university-related communications sent to their official VCU student email accounts. Information on how to set up an email account is available online.
The academic advising process requires periodic checks by graduate students, advisers and program directors to ensure the accuracy of students’ academic histories. Unofficial academic histories are available online through eServices, or official transcripts may be obtained for a fee from the Office of the University Registrar.
It is the responsibility of all graduate students to:
- Check their records no later than the end of the add/drop registration period at the beginning of each semester to ensure that their registrations are correct
- Check their records at the end of each semester to ensure that their academic histories are current and correct
Students who wish to appeal assigned grades must follow the grade review procedure as articulated in this Bulletin and as published in VCU Rules and Procedures in the VCU Policy Library.
Requests for any other changes to an academic history must be submitted in writing by students to their graduate program directors no later than 14 calendar days after the beginning of the following semester (for the fall semester, 14 calendar days after the beginning of the spring semester; for the spring or summer semester, 14 calendar days after the beginning of the fall semester).
Graduate students, program directors and academic school deans/designees are required to conduct a final review of all academic histories as part of the application-to-graduate check-out process as articulated in Graduation information section of this Bulletin as well as on the Graduate School website. A student’s signature on or submission of the application to graduate is acknowledgement that the student has reviewed the academic history and that it is correct. Final approval by graduate program directors and academic school deans/designees of the application to graduate confirms that the student’s academic history is complete, correct and final and that no future requests for changes to the academic history will be considered once the student has been approved to graduate.
Revised 5/11/2010
University Graduate Council