Doctoral Time Limits

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Time spent withdrawn from the graduate program will count toward all time limits for a student who is readmitted to the graduate program.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)

Extension requests are needed when it is determined that a student is unable to meet an established time limit deadline (please note, this is not the same as a recalculation of a time limit. See section below for how to submit recalculation requests). 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. [Please note: Time limits are only extended through the official, academic-year quarters of Fall, Winter, Spring. Summer is treated as an extension of Spring as it is not an official quarter.]

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

To view the “Workflow Status” of a submission, open the specific submission record and go to the menu on the top right of the screen; click on the 1st option, “Workflow Status” (shown below):

Once you select “Workflow Status,” you will see who has approved the request and if any 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. The rationale for the time limit recalculation is due to the transfer or readmission itself. These requests should be submitted at the time the student is entering the doctoral program.

For students transferring from a master’s to a doctoral program (with no break in enrollment), or from one doctoral program to another, please input requested limits on the “Change Major or Degree Aim” online form. [If there is a break in enrollment, a General Petition for readmission is needed]
For students being readmitted to a doctoral program, please specify the requested limits on the General Petition form.
If additional room is needed to provide support for the requested limits, please submit a letter (via email) from the student's faculty advisor, endorsed by the department chair, to the GEPA PhD Graduate Academic Affairs Advisor. Please provide as much detail as possible to support and justify the need for additional time.

Common reasons for requesting a recalculation are below and should be included/addressed in the request to recalculate:

student switched to the doctoral program late and 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 previously completed a master’s degree and is being readmitted to a 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, review 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 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 registered 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 at the time of transfer, a time limit extension request may be requested later (see section above on Extension Requests).

Questions on recalculation requests should be directed to the PhD Graduate Academic Affairs Advisor via email.

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 GEPA Associate Dean.