Students who plan to study abroad during their final semester should carefully consider how participation may affect their graduation timeline.
Degree Completion and Graduation Deferral
- Completing a degree during an education abroad program
- Students who plan to participate in an education abroad program during their final semester must remain enrolled at the University of Kentucky for the following term (typically winter or summer) for your program’s academic credit to be received, processed, and posted to your UK transcript.
- Participating on an education abroad program after degree completion
- Students may postpone degree conferral to participate in an education abroad program after completing degree requirements. This often takes place during a final semester or the winter or summer after completing the degree.
- If you are participating on a UK EA program after you have completed your degree requirements, you may participate in your normally scheduled commencement ceremony and events but must defer your official graduation date and degree conferral to the following term.
Residency Requirements for Graduation
- Courses taken as part of an education abroad program or through the National Student Exchange program are considered courses taken at UK for the purpose of satisfying the university’s residence requirement and for determining eligibility for commencement honors at the time your degree is awarded.
- To meet the undergraduate residence requirement, the following must be completed through the University of Kentucky:
- At least 25 percent of the credits presented for the degree
- A minimum of 30 total credit hours
- At least 30 of the last 36 credits presented for the degree
- Courses taken elsewhere and transferred to UK, as well as courses taken through the UK International Center (except for courses taught by UK faculty) and National Student Exchange programs, do not count toward the 25 percent credit requirement.
- To meet the undergraduate residence requirement, the following must be completed through the University of Kentucky:
- For more information, review the graduation and residence requirements in the university catalog: https://catalogs.uky.edu/index.php?catoid=3.
Credit Resolution Requirement
- All education abroad academic credits must be fully processed before you can graduate. Students cannot graduate with EANEEDCR (reference EANEEDCR policy for details) on their UK transcript. Any unresolved education abroad credit will be temporarily posted as EANEEDCR until the credit from abroad has been evaluated. These placeholder credits must be resolved before your degree can be officially conferred.