Understanding Your Graduate Experience

Dear Graduate Student,

Our fondest wish is for you to be successful in completing all the requirements for your chosen graduate certificate or degree. We recognize that this scholarly endeavor will require much time and energy from you over the next several years. Please be assured that we will be available to help you earn this most prestigious academic award from UCF.

The purpose of this handbook is to aid you in understanding the context of graduate education at UCF. The goal is to provide you with resources, information, practices, and polices that will help you in navigating the graduate experience.

While we have made every effort to include all of the requirements, policies, and procedures that relate to graduate study in this handbook, we also recognize that, from time to time, it will be necessary to revise, add, or delete certain of these items. Accordingly, while we believe that this handbook is both complete and accurate, any errors or omissions are subject to the appropriate University, college, or department policy, which take precedence over the language of this handbook. Further, we reserve the right make changes, as required and appropriate, through customary university governance procedures.

Finally, this handbook is not intended to be used in isolation, but rather in association with other university documents relevant to the completion of your certificate or degree. Another central resource for you is the Program Handbook for the degree or certificate you have enrolled and the Graduate Catalog.

We hope you enjoy and grow from this academic adventure.

Best,

Staff and Administration
UCF College of Graduate Studies

Preface

This Handbook is intended to familiarize graduate students with the procedures, policies, and expectations of the University of Central Florida Graduate programs from a general institutional perspective. Students should refer to their relevant Program Handbook for more specific graduate information. By reading, understanding, and adhering to the information provided in this document, students may be better equipped for success. This handbook is also designed to help you when you face challenges along your educational path.

Further and in support of the Mission Statement and the principles on which it is based, the University of Central Florida is committed to equal opportunity for all students, staff, and faculty and to nondiscrimination in the recruitment, admission, and retention of students and the recruitment, hiring, promotion, and retention of graduate faculty and staff. UCF reaffirms its commitment to personnel and educational policies that comply with the requirement applicable to equal opportunity/affirmative action laws, directives, executive orders, and regulations to the effect that no person at the University of Central Florida shall, on the basis of age, color, creed, disability, ethnic/national origin, gender, military status, pregnancy, race, religion, or any other class protected by applicable law, be excluded from participating in or be denied benefits of, any employment or educational opportunity.

We also recognize differences among groups of people and individuals based on ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status, gender, exceptionalities, language, religion, sexual orientation, and geographical area. As an institution, we design, implement, and evaluate curriculum and provide experiences for graduate students to acquire and demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and professional dispositions necessary to help all students learn. This all happens through institutionalized shared governance infrastructures.  It is through these shared governance procedures and through relevant institutional policies that we strive to maintain and achieve educational equality.