Doctoral Time Limits

Owned by Erica Lennard
Last updated: Mar 15, 2024 by Norienne Saign

View Department/Program Time Limits

At the end of their first year of study, doctoral students will receive a letter from GEPA explaining their time limits. Another notification of time limits will be sent when a student advances to candidacy. Students may access their letters in the GEPA Student Portal.

Each doctoral program has three time limits:

  • Pre-candidacy limit (PCTL) - Maximum registered time in which a student must advance to doctoral candidacy.

  • Support limit (SUTL) - Maximum time during which a doctoral student is eligible for financial support.

  • Total time limit (TRTL) - Maximum registered time in which a student must complete all doctoral requirements.

In addition, each program has a Normative Time, the period within which students, under normal circumstances, are expected to complete requirements for the doctorate. Normative Time cannot be extended.

Departments may establish earlier doctoral time limits which are administered solely by the department.

Time limits are affected by the following:

  • Up to three quarters on approved leave of absence will not count in the above limits.

  • Time spent withdrawn from the graduate program will count toward all time limits for a student who is readmitted to the graduate program. (A recalculation request may be submitted upon readmission.)

  • Time spent at UC San Diego as a master's, non-degree graduate, or intercampus exchange student will count in the above time limits.

  • Adjustment to the time limits for students who change departments or enroll for one year or more of half-time study may be made upon departmental recommendation and approval by the Graduate Dean.

Students will not be permitted to continue in doctoral status if they have not advanced to candidacy before the expiration of the pre-candidacy time limit or if they have not completed their program before the expiration of the total time limit. Students will not be permitted to receive UC San Diego administered financial support after the expiration of their support time limit.

EXTENSION REQUESTS (online submission via Kuali Build)

To request an extension to PCTL, SUTL, or TRTL, the graduate program must submit justification with approval from the student's faculty advisor and the department chair/ program director (or alternative faculty leadership designee). The extension request should be submitted to GEPA Academic Affairs via the online Time Limit Extension Request form (in Kuali Build). The form has the option of being routed electronically for faculty approval (using SSO authentication) or uploading a request letter with signatures included on the PDF or Word doc from both the faculty advisor and department chair/ program director. The justification for the extension should be provided by the student’s faculty advisor to explain the reason(s) for the delay and outline the plan forward.

Please be sure to input the specific time limits being requested into the appropriate text box (shown below); if uploading a request letter, ensure what is listed in the text box matches what is requested in the letter.

To check the status of a form once it is submitted, you can view the current status by accessing your submission under "My Documents" in https://ucsd.kualibuild.com/build/my/submissions.

Click on the specific request. You should see a “View” option on the left side of the submission. Use the slider to select “Status” and you will see who has approved and whose approval is pending.

If you need to follow-up with the faculty who need to sign, provide the faculty with the link to the Kuali "Action List," which should list any requests pending their approval.

If you have questions about the form or time limit extensions please contact GEPA Academic Affairs Assistant Director Norienne Saign or Assistant Dean Erica Lennard via email.

RECALCULATION OF TIME LIMIT REQUESTS

Time limit recalculation requests are necessary when the assigned time limits based on the default calculation (from when a student starts any graduate program) do not match the student’s new academic plan. These requests should be submitted at the time the student transfers from a Master’s to a doctoral program, from one doctoral program to another, or is being readmitted to a doctoral program. The rationale for the time limit recalculation is due to the transfer or readmission itself. Some examples for time limit recalculations are:

  • student switched to the doctoral program late in the MS career so more time is needed to develop the research topic or fulfill doctoral requirements

  • additional courses are needed because the student came from a different program

  • student changed advisors/research topic as a result of the switch

  • student completed the MS a while ago and is being readmitted to the doctoral program - time limits have expired (time limits are calculated from first enrollment, this includes first enrollment at the master’s level)

    • When a student is getting ready to transfer (or be readmitted) to a doctoral program, we recommended reviewing what the time limits would be based on the student's original start quarter at UC San Diego. The student’s faculty advisor should then determine if the assigned time limits are still appropriate or if the student will need more time based on the academic plan. The 3 time limits that may need to be recalculated are: pre-candidacy/PCTL, support time/SUTL, and total time/TRTL).

    • A program may request a recalculation of all 3 time limits at the same time, or only for 1 or 2. If a recalculation is not needed when the student transfers, a time limit extension request can be submitted 1 to 2 quarters prior to the time limit expiration.

  • Recalculation requests should be submitted to the PhD Graduate Academic Affairs Advisor via email. The request should be in the form of a letter from the student's faculty advisor, endorsed by the department chair. The letter should explain the reason/s that a recalculation is needed (see above bullet points for some examples). Please provide as much detail as possible to support the need for additional time.

  • Joint Doctoral Program recalculation requests should be submitted to the JDP Academic Affairs Advisor via email. Both PhD and JDP requests are reviewed for approval by the Senior Associate Dean.