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Academic Calendar – An official list of dates found at the beginning of the Undergraduate Catalog and on the Web at http://registrar.tennessee.edu. The Academic Calendar specifies the dates for semesters and terms, examination periods, holidays, periods classes are not in session, and commencement.
Academic Discipline – A subject area (e.g., history, political science, psychology).
Academic Probation – A status that indicates a student is in academic difficulty. Students are placed on Academic Probation when either their cumulative grade point average (GPA) falls below the minimal acceptable level of 2.0 for one semester or when their semester GPA falls below the minimal acceptable level of 2.0 for two consecutive terms of enrollment.
Academic Second Opportunity – A policy designed to assist the student who was not successful in progressing toward a degree during a previous attendance at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, but who is now performing satisfactory work.
Academic Year – The part of the year that includes the fall and spring semesters.
Advanced Placement (AP) Credit – Freshmen admitted to UT Knoxville may receive AP credit on the basis of performance on one or more of the Advanced Placement Examinations offered by the College Entrance Examination Board. Each participating department decides on the acceptable score for credit.
Advisor – A department or college-based faculty or staff member who meets with students each semester to discuss curricular choices and progress toward achieving educational goals.
Audit – A registration status that allows a student (with the approval of the instructor) to enroll in a course without receiving credit.
Baccalaureate or Bachelor’s Degree – Awarded for completion of an undergraduate curriculum. A bachelor’s degree is comprised of general education courses, a major, elective courses, and, in some cases, a minor. BA is the Bachelor of Arts degree and BS is the Bachelor of Science degree.
Bursar – See Office of the Bursar.
Catalog – A resource of all academic policies and procedures, college and degree requirements, faculty, and course descriptions.
Catalog Year – The year during which the regulations of a specific edition of the Undergraduate Catalog apply.
Classification – Level of progress toward a degree based on the number of semester hours passed.
Collateral Area – Classes in a discipline or subject related to the major or concentration but offered by a different department. For example, in the College of Business Administration, the major in finance offers a collateral option.
College – An academic unit of the university. Each college represents an organization of related departments. (The Colleges of Nursing and Social Work do not have departments.)
Commencement (also known as Graduation) – A formal ceremony in which colleges award degrees to graduating students.
Concentration – A focus within the major. For example, criminal justice is a concentration of the sociology major.
Contact Hours – The number of hours the class meets per week.
Core Courses – Classes that all students in a major program are required to take.
Corequisite – Specific conditions, requirements, or courses that must be completed at the same time as another course.
Correspondence – A type of independent study for individuals who want to study out-of-class at their own pace.
Course – A specific subject studied within a limited period of time. Courses may utilize lecture, discussion, laboratory, seminar, workshop, studio, independent study, internship, or other similar teaching formats to facilitate learning.
Course Load – The total number of credit hours taken in a semester.
Course Number – The three-digit number that identifies a specific course, such as 101 in English 101.
Course Title – The name of a specific course that indicates subject and content. English Composition I is the course title of English 101.
Credit – The number of credits assigned to a course is generally based upon the amount of time the class meets each week. For example, a three-credit lecture class meets for approximately three hours per week.
Credit by Examination – See Proficiency.
Credit Hours – The numerical unit of credit earned for satisfactory completion of a particular course. Each credit hour is roughly equivalent to one hour of class time per week. Most lecture courses are three credit hours. Laboratories do not generally reflect credit hours equivalent to the number of hours they meet.
Curriculum – A program of courses that meets the requirements for a degree in a particular field of study.
Degree – Official recognition for completion of a curriculum.
Degree Audit Report System (DARS) – An automated record of a student’s academic progress toward degree completion in his/her major. The DARS audit contains all requirements and sub-requirements for a specific degree program. Final certification of degree requirements rests with the Office of the University Registrar.
Department – A unit within a college representing a discipline. For example, the Department of English is in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Departmental Exam – A common final exam given to all sections of a course at a designated time. Departmental final exams are usually scheduled in a large room rather than the location where the class met during the term.
Discipline – An area of study representing a branch of knowledge, such as mathematics.
Dismissal – When a student’s academic performance is consistently poor over time and his/her GPA is below 2.0, he/she will no longer be allowed to enroll.
Drop/Add – Changing a student’s course schedule by adding and/or dropping a course or courses.
Electives – Courses selected at a student’s discretion. Electives may be partially restricted (selected from a specified group of courses identified to fulfill a particular requirement) or they may be free electives (selected from any courses for which the student has proper prerequisites).
Final Exams – Tests or exercises given at the end of a term. A schedule for Final Exams is listed in the Timetable each semester.
General Education Requirement – See University General Education Requirement.
Grade Point Average (GPA) – A measure of scholastic performance. The GPA is obtained by dividing the number of grade points by the hours of work attempted.
Incomplete – Under extraordinary circumstances and only at the discretion of the instructor, a grade of I (Incomplete) may be assigned to a student whose work is satisfactory but who has not completed a portion of the course.
Independent Study – Academic work completed in consultation with a faculty member outside of the regular course offerings.
Interdisciplinary – Course or program of study involving two or more major areas/departments. For example, the minor in communication and information is interdisciplinary.
Lab (laboratory) – In labs, students apply lecture material in small-group situations that include experiments, assignments, and projects.
Lecture – Teaching method in which the professor presents information to the students who take notes, ask questions, and have dialogue with the professor.
Lower Division (LD) – Courses on the 100- or 200-level that cover introductory content.
Major – A student’s principal field of study that commonly consists of approximately 25% of the total credit hours needed to earn a degree.
Matriculation – The first enrollment following admission as a student.
Minor – A secondary field of study requiring fewer credits than the major.
Office of the Bursar – The office where payments of tuition and fees are made.
Office of the University Registrar – The office that plans and oversees registration, academic record maintenance, transcript preparation, graduation, degree audit report system, curricular records, and university catalogs.
Option – An approved group of courses creating a specialty within a major field of study.
Plagiarism – Using the intellectual property of someone else without giving proper credit. The undocumented use of someone else’s words or ideas in any medium of communication (unless such information is recognized as common knowledge) is a serious offense, subject to disciplinary action that may include failure in a course and/or dismissal from the university.
Prerequisite – Specific conditions, requirements, or classes that must be completed before enrolling in another course. For example, English 101 is a prerequisite for English 102.
Proficiency – Credit received when a student takes an oral or written examination without enrolling in a course. The university policy is to allow each individual department to determine which of its
courses, if any, can be passed by proficiency.
Progression Requirements – Requirements used by some colleges or degree programs (usually at the end of the second year) to determine if students have successfully completed prerequisite courses before accepting them into a specific major.
Registrar – See Office of the University Registrar.
Registration – The act of signing up for classes on the Web (cpo.utk.edu).
Registration Restriction(s) – Conditions for enrollment enforced by the Registration System. These restrictions may include one or more of the following – minimum GPA, student level, college, major,
concentrations, degree, or a qualification such as teacher licensure.
Satisfactory/No Credit Grading (S/NC) – An alternative to the standard grading system of letter grades.
Section – One of several classes of the same course. In the Timetable, a five-digit code is used to identify each section of each course offered.
Semester or Term – Semester and term are used to identify the formally designated period during which classes are scheduled. Fall semester begins in August and Spring semester begins in January.
Seminar – A form of small group instruction, combining independent research and class discussions, under the guidance of a professor.
Sequence – A series of courses within the same subject area. Generally, these courses are taken in numerical order. An example of a sequence is History 221, 222 (History of the United States).
Session – A session is an abbreviated period within the full academic term during which classes are offered. For example, some summer courses are offered during the first session of summer term (in June), and others are offered during the second session (in July).
Survey Course – A course that covers briefly the principal topics of a broad field of knowledge.
Syllabus – A course outline provided by the instructor that delineates course requirements, grading criteria, course content, faculty expectations, deadlines, examination dates, grading policies, class attendance requirements, and other relevant course information.
Timetable of Classes – The official schedule of classes produced each semester by the Office of the University Registrar. The most up-to-date information can be found online at cpo.utk.edu.
Track – A separate route leading to the same degree but with different requirements.
Transcript – The official record of a student’s course work maintained by the Office of the University Registrar.
University General Education Requirement – One of the requirements for a baccalaureate degree (beginning Fall 2004). It is a pattern of courses which students complete, regardless of their major, to ensure that they have a broad educational experience.
Upper Division (UD) – Courses numbered in the 300- and 400-level which cover more in-depth content.
Withdrawal – Officially dropping all courses for a given term.
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