[See additional information in Expectations for Graduate Education: Complaints and Appeals, http://graduateschool.vt.edu/academics/expectations/expectations-for-graduate-education-overview/complaints-and-appeals.html]

Graduate education is a complex activity involving a high order of student-faculty relationship. It follows that the evaluation of the graduate student’s progress is, and must be, dependent in large part on the judgment of the student’s Advisor and augmented by the collective judgment of the members of the Advisory Committee. The university, through the Graduate School, defines minimal entrance standards and general rules governing eligibility for continuation in graduate programs. However, the crucial agency in student evaluation is the student’s Advisor and other Advisory Committee members.

It is important that each graduate student be fully informed, not only of the Graduate School Policies and Procedures, but of any additional departmental program requirements beyond those of the Graduate School. The Graduate School website provides a link to departmental policy requirements at https://secure.graduateschool.vt.edu/graduate_catalog/programs.htm . The department should inform graduate students of their degree requirements at the time of matriculation.

It is assumed that most problems involving graduate education will be discussed informally and reconciled at the departmental level. Indeed, most discussions of this kind will commonly occur among the student, the Chair of the student’s Advisory Committee, and the other members of the Advisory Committee. However, from time to time serious questions may arise that place the student’s status in jeopardy. On these occasions, it is important that the university provide full opportunity for the student’s grievance to be reviewed in a judicious manner.