The Office of the University Registrar (OUR) announced at the Advising Community Forum on May 14th that they will no longer routinely change courses previously taken and would only change past quarter/academic history in cases of institutional error.
The impact to some graduate students is that courses needed to satisfy dissertation, thesis, non-theses or internship requirements that were not taken as required 600/700/800 level credit cannot be changed on the transcript to satisfy program requirements or Graduate School degree requirements outlined in Policy 1.1.
While GEMS is exploring a longer-term solution, the following is the process we ask programs to follow when courses needed to fulfill culminating work for graduation were not taken as the required class number.
Instructions for GPAs:
Course swaps
- The department must submit a Waive Graduate School Policy petition BEFORE recommending graduation (see dates & deadlines).
- The petition must include:
- Course details (course prefix, course enrollment term and year, and the number of course credits)
- Reference to Graduate School Policy
- Master’s: GS Policy 1.1.2.2 Thesis Program
- PhD: GS Policy 1.1.4.3 Dissertation – OR – 1.1.5 Practice Doctorate
- Example: Course (QTR/YR) # credits count for XYZ requirement, # credits (GS Policy ###)
Important information:
- Failure to provide complete and accurate information in the petition justification may result in a delay in graduation (next term; no manual graduation requests will be allowed).
- Failure to submit the petition BEFORE recommending graduation may result in a delay in graduation (next term; no manual graduation request allowed).
- The petition is for auditing purposes ONLY due to the recent change in OUR, but required for graduation
- Courses associated with the petition will not be updated on the transcript
- Approved petition AND thesis required: Be sure to update/verify the “Thesis Required” field is marked correctly within the Master’s Degree Requests
- Vice versa for non-thesis
Course Adds
- In rare cases when a student does not register for the correct number of credits required they should be directed to take the additional course credits (example: Course prefix 3-5 credits – Student only registers for 3 credits, while the program requires 5 credits).
- This will delay their graduation, and likely result in additional tuition charges
- If an error was made that was not the student’s fault, a Waive GS Policy petition can be filed and GEMS would add the exception should the petition be approved.
- Please keep in mind that to add the credit to the transcript (change academic history) a request would need to be made to OUR with documentation of institutional error.
GEMS will be more lenient for students who started their program prior to Autumn 2025. Students who start Autumn 2025 or after should be advised early to take the appropriate required coursework and we encourage programs to monitor student registration to ensure they are registering for the required courses.
We also ask that programs review their department materials, handbooks, websites and program requirements to ensure students are taking the correct courses at the right time, especially for students starting your program Autum 2025 or later.
If you have questions, please feel free to reach us at gemshelp@uw.edu. If it is an urgent matter related to graduating this quarter, please feel free to request a GEMS appointment.