Plan of Study


All graduate students in the School of Engineering, on both the Lawrence and Edwards campuses, must have a completed Plan of Study on file by the beginning of their second semester of graduate study. New students should meet with their faculty advisor or graduate director to develop a Plan of Study before completing the online form.

Plan of Study Process

  1. Students meet with faculty advisor or graduate director to develop a Plan of Study (list of courses that meet graduation requirements)
     
  2. Access the online Plan of Study and make sure that Cookies are enabled
     
  3. Select degree - students will be asked to fill in their KUID, major, contact information, KU employment, thesis/dissertation topic (or type non-thesis), previous degrees, admit term, and number of hours needed to complete their degree
     
  4. Select committee - master's students are required to enter in at least three committee members, and doctoral students are required to enter at least five committee members including one outside member. More information about committees can be found in the Graduate Academic Catalog. Students who have members on their committee outside or new to KU will need to:

    a) Search for the individual within the database

    b) Add the individual to the committee or click 'Propose New Committee Member' to add in this person's information. Committee members outside of KU will be sent information about how to log-in to the online Plan of Study system. Be sure contact information and email are correct when proposing a new member. It is important that students meet with their advisor or graduate director to determine who will be on the committee before completing this step, although members can be changed/updated at any point.
     
  5. Enter courses - enter the planned courses required to complete a degree; students should enter this information to the best of their ability after meeting with their advisor or graduate director and update information as it changes.
     
  6. Submit plan - this option will only appear after steps 1-5 are completed. If major changes are made to your plan after your plan was initially approved, it will need to be re-submitted for approval in your last year of graduate study or prior to any milestone.

Note: If your personal information (phone or address) is listed incorrectly, we may be unable to contact you with important enrollment or graduation information. Be sure this information is kept up to date in both your plan and in Enroll & Pay.

Electronic Approval Process

Departmental graduate advisors and personnel will be notified via e-mail when a student has submitted a Plan of Study. A link to the student's Plan of Study will be provided in the e-mail, which is automatically sent to each member of the committee. Committee members will be required to log in to the Plan of Study system to access the student's records. KU committee members will use their KU ID and password to log in to view, approve, deny, or suggest changes to a student's Plan of Study. Committee members outside of KU will be provided with a username and password to log in to the system via email.

E-mails, which contain a link to a student's Plan of Study, will be sent to the following individuals in numerical order:

  1. Committee Chair
  2. Committee members - The committee chair receives an e-mail before notification is sent to each committee member. Committee members will only receive e-mail notifications once the chair has approved the student's plan.
  3. Departmental graduate advisor/director
  4. Departmental graduate personnel

Students will receive e-mail notification after their plan has been approved by all members of the committee. If you do not receive an email within two weeks of submitting your plan, please contact those instructors by email to remind them to review and sign off on your plan. It is important that you do not make changes to your plan after submitting the plan prior to final approval. Doing so will disrupt the automatic email system and may delay approval. Wait until the plan is approved to update or change information and resubmit if needed.

Changes to a Student's Plan of Study

Students are responsible for updating their Plan of Study when modifications are needed. Committee members who desire changes to a student's plan should notify the student, who will update the online plan. The Committee Chair will be notified when major changes to a student's plan have been submitted for approval. For full committee members to approve a modified plan, students will need to resubmit to the entire committee to approve (or not approve) the updated plan.