Southern Methodist University

Dedman College

Graduate Program in Religious Studies

Degree Requirements and Time Limits

A chart of degree requirements and time limits for the M.A. and Ph. D. degrees follows these policies.

With regard to these time limits, the following policies apply.

1. Language Examinations. The student is allowed one re-take of a language examination which the student fails the first time around. The re-take must be scheduled for the next following examination period after the examination period in which the student fails the language exam. Thereafter, the student is allowed to retake a failed language exam only (a) upon the recommendation of the language examiner and (b) with the approval of the Steering Committee.

2. Field Examinations. If a student fails a field examination, the student is allowed one re-take of the examination, (a) upon the recommendation of the examiner and (b) with the approval of the Steering Committee. The re-take must be scheduled for the next following examination period.

3. Two-Part Proposals. There are no exceptions to the requirement that the Two-Part Proposal be submitted no later than October of the second year.

4. Dissertation Proposals. Dissertation proposals may be submitted later than the stipulated deadline only by petition to the Steering Committee and with the Steering Committee’s approval of the student’s petition.

5. Completion of Course Work. No exceptions are allowed to the requirement that the first-year course work be completed no later than May of the first year of study. In certain cases, exceptions may be granted by the Director to the requirement that all field-level course work be completed no later than December of the third year of study, i.e., cases in which a course or courses is/are only offered on a schedule that requires the student to take the course or courses in the spring semester of the student’s third year. N. B.: In such cases, the student is permitted to postpone to May of the third year any field exam preparation for which requires such courses.

6. Leaves of Absence. In cases when a student takes a leave of absence from the GPRS for medical or other valid personal reasons (leaves of absence must be approved by the Steering Committee), any deadlines which the student has not yet met at the time of taking the leave of absence will be extended by a period equivalent to the period of the student’s leave of absence.

7. In special circumstances, exceptions to these policies may be granted upon petition to the Steering Committee and with the Steering Committee’s approval. In such cases, the student’s petition to the Steering Committee must give a detailed account of the circumstances that the student believes to justify the request for an exception.

4/24/92; 12/8/04, 2/16/05