PRP 3446 - Undergraduate Academic Retention Standards

Issued by: James Mackin, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Effective Date: Spring 2009
Notes: Amended by BUCC 11/14/90, Amended by BUCC 02/27/2002, Presented to FORUM 03/06/2002-Incorporates PRP3557. Revised by BUCC 09/27/06. Reported to Forum 10/11/06. Amended by BUCC 09/24/08. Reported to Forum 10/08/08.

Criteria For Evaluating Undergraduate Academic Retention

Undergraduate academic retention is evaluated on the basis of two criteria:

  • a student's ability to earn a minimum number of credit hours;
  • a student's ability to maintain academic good standing or academic probation at the conclusion of each grading period.

Earned Credit Hours

Full-time continuously enrolled undergraduate degree students: to maintain satisfactory progress toward the completion of a degree, the student must earn a minimum of 24 credit hours in any given 12 month period (including credit hours earned in developmental studies courses).

Part-time undergraduate degree students: to maintain satisfactory progress within any 12 month period, the student must earn credit hours as follows:

Up to eight credit hours attempted: One-half of all credit hours attempted must be earned.

Above eight credit hours attempted: Two-thirds of all credit hours attempted must be earned.

NOTE: Credit hours earned for a repeated undergraduate course are counted as earned once and recorded as attempted once.

Academic Good Standing

To be in academic good standing a student must possess a 2.00 or higher cumulative quality point average.

Academic Probation

Students who fail to meet the above stated earned credit hour requirements are granted an additional fall or spring grading period on probation in which they must earn a minimum of eight (8) credit hours.

Any student with a cumulative quality point average below 2.00 is on academic probation. Students who are on academic probation have twelve months to obtain academic good standing provided they make progress toward academic good standing at the conclusion of the first fall or spring probationary grading period (possess a higher cumulative quality point average than the cumulative quality point average that placed them on probation initially).

Academic Dismissal

Earned credit hour probation students who fail to earn a minimum of eight (8) credit hours during the next fall or spring grading period are placed on academic dismissal.

Students who are on academic probation due to low cumulative grade point average who also fail to make progress towards academic good standing after one grading period or fail to achieve academic good standing after twelve months are excluded from registration and their academic records are marked "academic dismissal".

Unless reinstated by the Academic Review Board, students under academic dismissal are ineligible to attend any courses in any capacity offered by the university for a period of at least one calendar year. At the conclusion of this period of separation, they are eligible to seek readmission.

Appeal To Academic Dismissal

Appeals to academic dismissal are adjudicated by the Academic Review Board (ARB) which consists of all College Deans, the Director of Admissions, the Registrar, the Coordinator of Academic Advisement, a designee of the Vice-President for Student Life, and the Director of the Center for Counseling and Human Development. In its evaluation of a petition for reinstatement the ARB is charged to assess carefully, the likelihood that the petitioning student can reach academic good standing if granted one additional continually enrolled grading period. A student who has been academically dismissed will receive a letter from the Chairperson of the ARB outlining the following appeals process:

The appeal must be in writing to the Chairperson of the ARB within the time frame stated in the dismissal notice.

The appeal must set forth:

  • external factors beyond the student's control that temporarily prevented optimum academic achievement
  • the likelihood that these or similar factors would not recur if reinstatement were granted
  • the plan for attaining good standing proposed by the student
  • the likelihood that the student, if reinstated, could complete his or her curriculum successfully within a reasonable extension of the normal four-year period.

If the ARB reinstates the student, the Board will set forth the conditions that must be met by the student.

If the ARB denies reinstatement the dismissal is final.