The College of Graduate Studies has established an academic residency requirement in order to provide doctoral students with the opportunity to engage in intensive, concentrated study over an extended period of time in association with faculty members and other students in an atmosphere conducive to a high level of intellectual and scholarly activity.

The purpose of a residency requirement is to encourage doctoral students to experience contact with the academic community: colleagues, libraries, laboratories, ongoing programs of research and inquiry, and the intellectual environment that characterizes a university. Such experience is generally as important as formal classwork in the process of intellectual development. Although the residency requirement is, by necessity, given in terms of full or part-time enrollment, the intent of the requirement is to ensure that the student becomes fully engaged in an essential part of scholarly life.

Doctoral students satisfy the doctoral residency requirement by completing a total of 18 hours of coursework taken over 3 consecutive semesters. Enrollment in a summer term is not required to maintain continuity, but credits earned during summer terms could count toward the 18 hours required for residency. Each graduate program may exclude certain courses and credit hours from meeting the residency requirement.

Any exceptions to the residency requirement must be requested in writing. For students who have been determined by their academic college to need an exception to this requirement, the request must be attached to a Plan of Study and include information detailing how a student will interact with faculty and other students, read widely within and beyond the major field, and contemplate scholarly issues as they relate to professional practice.