GRADUATE CATALOG - The Petroleum Institute

Graduate Catalog | Academic Year 2013 – 2014Graduation RequirementsGraduationEach degree program publishes a list of its degree requirements. If students are admitted with deficiencies, theappropriate department chair will provide the students written lists of courses required to remove thedeficiencies. These lists will be given to the students no later than one week after the start of classes of theirfirst semester in order to allow them to add/drop courses as necessary. Upon completion of the degreerequirements, Request to Graduate form, documenting satisfactory completion of the degree requirements mustbe signed by the advisor, graduate advisory committee, if appropriate, and the department chair.Catalog of RecordFor purposes of academic standing and verification that all graduation requirements have been met, the Catalog ofRecord is either that of the year the student entered the major or the year the student graduates.Graduation RequirementsThe individual degree departments have established the credit hour and graduation requirements for thesis andnon-thesis graduate degree programs. These requirements are not necessarily uniform across the five degreedepartments; prospective students should consult the program-specific information in the following sections ofthis catalog for details. The following general guidelines apply:Master of EngineeringThe Master of Engineering degree consists of a minimum of 30 credit hours of approved graduate-levelcoursework. Students must have an overall cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better in order toqualify for graduation with a Master of Engineering degree.Master of ScienceThe Master of Science degree consists of a minimum of 21 (16 for the case of Petroleum Geosciences) credithours of approved graduate-level coursework. In addition, students must complete and successfully defenda Master of Science thesis (9 credit hours in Engineering Departments and 12 in Petroleum Geosciences).Students must have an overall cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better in order to qualify forgraduation with a Master of Science.Time Limit on Study and CoursesA student must satisfy all graduation requirements within 36 months for full-time and within 48 months for parttimestudents from first enrollment at the Petroleum Institute inclusive of any approved leave. For studentswith first enrollment in the academic year 2009 – 2010 and earlier, graduation requirements should be satisfiedwithin 6 years from first enrollment. At the time of graduation, no course should be older than 8 years.Thesis DefenseThe research thesis constitutes an independent program of study dealing with a relevant research problem underthe direction of a suitable advisor. Research on the thesis will be satisfactorily completed by all graduatestudents, and preliminary work on the research project should commence as early as possible in the graduateprogram. Nine credit hours are required for the research thesis (12 in Petroleum Geosciences), which shouldcover a suitable literature survey of related material, the approach to the research problem, details of theapplied methodology and a discussion of the acquired data. Each student must present an acceptabledissertation and pass an oral, thesis-defense examination covering the research project and related material.PlagiarismPlagiarism is the use of any outside source, without proper acknowledgment. ‘Outside source’ means any work,published or unpublished, by any person other than the person itself. Note that “plagiarism” is not limited tothe egregious case where text is lifted verbatim and not cited. Any text which is taken verbatim must be placedin quotation marks, and the source properly cited. Citing the source, but omitting the quotation marks,constitutes a violation. One situation where this may arise is when reproducing a figure from another source.Even if the source is indicated, if the caption is also taken from that source, it must be enclosed in quotationPage 29