Changes: Grading Policy for Thesis and Dissertation Courses
Effective Fall 2020 semester, the University will no longer allow IP (In Progress) grades to be given for master’s thesis (6x99, 7x99) and doctoral dissertation (8x99) courses. Only S/U or letter grades will be allowed for these courses.
Please see the catalog description: publications.uh.edu/content.php?catoid=37&navoid=13406#grading
Students should enroll in Master’s Research (7*98) or Doctoral Research (8*98) while doing research toward their M.S. or Ph.D. (i.e., most of their graduate career). They should only enroll in the Master’s Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation courses in the semester when they anticipate to defend and submit the thesis/dissertation to the College.
If it turns out that the student is not able to defend in that semester, or if the thesis/dissertation does not receive final approval by the College in that semester, then the student should receive an S/U grade for the course, and enroll again in the course in the following semester.
It is very important to not give a letter grade until the semester of the defense and final approval of the thesis/dissertation by the College.
The reason for this is that the University only allows up to 6 hours of letter-graded Master’s Thesis and up to 12 hours of letter-graded Doctoral Dissertation. If the student accumulates more hours than this, grade changes will need to be made for courses taken in the past, which can affect the prompt processing of the student’s approval for graduation.