General Requirements

To receive an undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin, a student must fulfill the Core Curriculum requirements and all requirements for the degree as set forth in a catalog under which he or she is eligible to graduate and any special requirements of the college or school and department offering the degree, as well as the following minimum general requirements:

1. The student must have a grade point average of at least 2.00 on all courses undertaken at the University (including credit by examination, correspondence, and extension) for which a grade or symbol other than Q, W, X, or CR is recorded. Additional requirements imposed by a college or school, if any, are given in the college’s chapter of this catalog.
    
2. The student must fulfill the following requirements regarding coursework taken in-residence. Residence credit includes only courses taken at the University of Texas at Austin; it does not include credit by examination, courses taken by extension or correspondence, and online courses that are recorded as transfer credit. Coursework in University-approved affiliated study abroad programs (international provider programs) is treated as residence credit for requirements 2a below. However, coursework in University-approved affiliated study abroad programs may not be used to fulfill requirement 2b.
    
   1. The student must complete in-residence at least sixty semester hours of coursework counted toward the degree. (This requirement is waived for students in the Associate Degree in Nursing to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ADNBSN), a degree program for registered nurses who hold associate's degrees or diplomas in nursing.)
       
   2. At least six semester hours of advanced coursework in the major must be completed in residence.
      
      Additional requirements imposed by a college or school, if any, are given in the college/school sections of this catalog. Many degree plans include residence rules in addition to the above University-wide requirements; the appropriate academic units have the discretion to determine applicability of University-approved affiliated study abroad credit toward all college- and school-specific requirements for coursework in-residence. Course equivalency and University approval of study abroad courses are determined by the appropriate academic units.
3. Coursework in American government and American history (the legislative requirement):
    
   1. Each student must complete six semester hours of coursework in American government, including Texas government. Because these courses are not electives, they may not be taken on the pass/fail basis at the University. Credit by examination may be counted toward the requirement.
      
      The six hours of coursework used to fulfill the requirement must cover both the United States and the Texas constitutions. Texas colleges and universities differ in the way they include this material in the courses they offer. As a result, some combinations of government courses taken at different institutions do not fulfill the requirement, even though they provide six hours of credit. The following combinations of coursework, some of which include transferred work, fulfill the government requirement at the University:
       
      1. Government 310Land 312L 
      2. Government 310L and three hours of transfer credit in United States government (entered into the student’s University record as “GOV 3 US”)
      3. Government 310L and three hours of transfer credit in Texas government (“GOV 3 TX”)
      4. Three hours of transfer credit in United States government (“GOV 3 US”) and three hours of transfer credit in Texas government (“GOV 3 TX”)
         
         A number of sections of Government 312L are offered each semester. Because some of these sections deal with state government and some deal with federal government, credit for Government 312L in combination with transfer credit in United States government (“GOV 3 US”) or in Texas government (“GOV 3 TX”) may fail to fulfill the legislative requirement. If a student has such a combination of credit, his or her dean’s office will evaluate the coursework to determine whether both the state and the federal components of the requirement have been met. 
   2. Each student must complete six semester hours of coursework in American history. Up to three hours in Texas history may be counted toward this requirement. Because these courses are not electives, they may not be taken on the pass/fail basis at the University. Credit by examination may be counted toward the requirement.
      
      ​ROTC courses may not be counted toward the legislative requirement in history or government. Policies about the use of ROTC courses are given in each of the college/school sections of this catalog.
4. A candidate for a degree must be registered at the University either in-residence or in absentia the semester or summer session the degree is to be awarded and must apply to the dean for the degree no later than the date specified in the official academic calendar. Some colleges require that their students be registered in that college the semester of graduation; these rules are given in the college/school sections of this catalog.