Advising Matters: Residency Requirement Explained
Posted by Barbara Goodman on 4/2/2008
The University of Arkansas residency requirement has two parts. The first part states that, in order to graduate, a student must complete a minimum of 36 weeks and 30 semester hours on the UA campus. This is intended to provide adequate contact with the university and its faculty for each student who is awarded a degree.
The second part of the residency requirement applies to seniors. The full senior year must be completed in residence (on campus) except that a senior who has already met the minimum residency requirement (30 hours on this campus) may be permitted to earn not more than 12 of the last 30 hours in correspondence or at another accredited institution. However, no more than 6 of the 12 hours may be correspondence courses.
How do you determine the "senior year" or final 30 hours? This would be simple if every student took exactly 30 hours in their final 2 semesters. However, if the student spreads out their final 30 hours in more than two semesters, then the rule that applies to taking the 12 hours off campus or by correspondence applies to every term that contains their final 30 hours. For example, a student might take 9 hours in summer, 14 hours in fall and 13 hours in spring that contain their final 30 hours. We can't split up the hours in a term to say that some hours belong to the final 30 and others do not. So, in this example, the student could only complete at another institution or by correspondence a total of 12 hours taken in those final three semesters (summer is considered one term).
What if a student does not complete the 30 hours on campus before their senior year? Let's say that a student transfers in a lot of hours and doesn't complete their 30 hours on this campus until the end of the fall term their senior year. They can take classes at another institution or by correspondence once they complete the 30 hours. Once the fall term is completed, this student could take hours off campus in the spring term.
Questions? Please contact the Boyer Center for Student Services if you need any additional information or clarification. Thank you!
We want to hear from you. Please e-mail comments and feedback to Barbara Goodman at bgoodma@uark.edu.