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PROV-027: Extensions to Time-to-Degree Limits for Graduate and Professional Students Who Experience Significant Life Events
Academic Division.
The University is committed to supporting graduate and professional students as they seek to complete their degree programs. This policy defines eligibility for graduate and professional students who experience significant life events to receive extensions to time-to-degree limits.
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Parental Accommodation Event:
Either the birth, adoption, or placement of a child, or the assumption of legal guardianship for a child under 18 years of age.
A graduate or professional student who experiences a significant life event while enrolled in their course of study, including, but not limited to, a Parental Accommodation Event, a personal and/or family crisis, a major medical event, or other extenuating circumstance, and who meets the eligibility criteria below, may request a one-semester extension to the time limitations associated with their graduate or professional degree program. An extension to the time-to-degree limits approved through this policy runs concurrently with any school- or department-based extension to time-to-degree limits.
- Eligibility:
A student who anticipates or experiences a significant life event and who meets the following criteria is eligible for the extension to time-to-degree limits associated with this policy.- (1) Is enrolled in a graduate or professional degree program at the University of Virginia for a minimum of one academic term (including summer); and,
- (2) Is in good academic standing as defined by the policies in the school of enrollment.
Students who have experienced, or who anticipate, a significant life event and wish to be granted an extension to time-to-degree limits should contact their advisor and the appropriate graduate program director, department chair, or dean at the earliest opportunity to establish the appropriate extension to time-to-degree limits. An extension to time-to-degree limits associated with a graduate or professional degree program may not always be associated with an extension in available assistantship funding.
When a leave of absence is approved in relation to a significant life event, the timing of that leave may be dependent upon the curricular expectations of the student’s program.
Graduate and professional students who have questions about the implementation of this policy should contact the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs.