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MEMO: Minimum Enrollment Requirements for Graduate Students

Office of the Dean
Graduate Division
University of California, Berkeley

May 1, 2007

TO: Deans, Directors, Department Chairs

Colleagues,

At its meeting of April 2, 2007, the Graduate Council decided that the minimum enrollment requirement for all graduate students who are not yet advanced to doctoral candidacy will be 12 units per semester regardless of their employment status.

Students who are advanced to doctoral candidacy and are registered and enrolled are presumed to be working full time on their dissertations regardless of the number of units in which they are enrolled.

All courses in which the student is enrolled will count in this total of 12 units, including special studies courses, individual studies courses (601, 602), and courses on preparation for teaching (300-level). Please note that while no more than 8 units of 600-level courses are allowed per semester, the previous limit of 16 units of this type of course during a student's graduate career is no longer in effect.

Students should be enrolled by the end of the third week of classes each semester.

Programs wishing to explore the possibility of establishing teaching practicum courses should consult with the Committee on Courses of the Academic Senate.

In requiring full-time enrollment of all graduate students, the Berkeley campus is following the practice of all other campuses of the University of California. The purpose of the new minimum enrollment limit is not to increase student workload, but to ensure that the campus receives proper budgetary credit from the systemwide administration for the work of its graduate students. This will result in more available funding for graduate student support. Most programs on the Berkeley campus already have all their graduate students enroll for 12 units if they are not advanced to candidacy

The minimum enrollment limit will be enforced for the whole campus beginning fall semester, 2007. If your unit expects to experience difficulties conforming to it, please consult with Carolyn Chee, Director of Graduate Services of the Graduate Division, at 642-5779 or cjchee@berkeley.edu.

Mary Ann Mason
Dean of the Graduate Division