Academic Progress and Graduation

University Policy

School of Dental Medicine Policy

Predoctoral Students

Promotion within or graduation from the DMD degree program requires:

• satisfactory completion of all course requirements
• compliance with all educational, administrative, and regulatory policies
• maintenance of ethical and professional standards
• demonstrated progress towards attainment of competency

At a minimum, all students must complete each year of the program with no final course grade of “F,” no more than one final course grade of “D,” and a grade point average 2.0 or above. Any student not meeting these minimum requirements is not eligible for promotion or graduation. Corrective action steps are recommended by the Promotions Committee for the individual student’s class year; these recommendations may range from remediation of course deficiencies up to dismissal from the program. Detailed conditions for promotion and graduation are described in the Guidelines for Predoctoral Promotion and Graduation.

Postdoctoral and Graduate Students

Promotion within or graduation from postdoctoral clinical and/or graduate research programs, whether individual or combined, requires:

• satisfactory completion of all course requirements
• compliance with all educational, administrative, and regulatory policies
• maintenance of ethical and professional standards
• demonstrated progress towards attainment of competency or proficiency, as described by the program

At a minimum, all students must complete each year of the program with no final course grade of “F” or “D.” Any student not meeting these minimum requirements is not eligible for promotion or graduation. Corrective action steps are generally recommended by the program director and/or the department chair, and/or any program or department committee (Promotions, Thesis, or Dissertation, as applicable). Students and/or program directors may request that the Advanced Education Committee consider cases of non-promotion or non-graduation, as warranted; this is a School-wide group consisting of representatives from all the postdoctoral clinical and graduate research programs. Recommended actions at any level may range from remediation of course deficiencies up to dismissal from the program. Detailed conditions for promotion and graduation are described in the Postdoctoral Student Handbook and also in the program-specific policies, procedures, or guidelines.