Academic Policies

Master of Divinity Program

Qualitative Progress: M.Div. degree students must maintain a minimum 2.0 G.P.A. each semester and a cumulative minimum 2.0 G.P.A., based upon completion of a minimum of nine credit hours per academic term. A student who fails to achieve this G.P.A. minimum is placed on academic probation for one semester. Students who remain on academic probation for a second semester may lose their scholarship eligibility.

Quantitative Progress: Students who wish to complete the degree in six semesters must earn at least 28 credits per year and not fewer than 12 credits in any semester. Full-time students who will complete the degree in eight semesters must earn 21 semester hours per year and not fewer than nine hours in any academic term. Drew’s financial awards are limited to a total of eight semesters. Full-time students who have completed fewer than 42 credits at the end of their fourth semester or who have registered for fewer than nine credits in any academic term may be required to file a plan of studies approved by the Academic Standing Committee showing how they plan to complete the degree within eight semesters. All academic requirements for the degree must be completed within seven years from the date of initial matriculation.

Extended track students are expected to earn at least 15-18 credits per year. Students who have completed fewer than 42 credits at the end of their third year in the program may be required to file a plan of studies with the Academic Standing Committee. All academic requirements for the degree must be completed within seven years from the date of initial matriculation. Financial aid awards for extended track students are limited to a total of twelve semester.

Master of Arts Program

Qualitative Progress: M.A. degree students must maintain a minimum 3.0 G.P.A. each semester and a cumulative minimum 3.00 G.P.A., based upon completion of at least nine credit hours per academic term. A student who fails to achieve this G.P.A. minimum is placed on academic probation for one semester. If the student is placed on strict academic probation for the following semester, she/he may be ineligible for financial assistance.

Quantitative Progress: Full-time students are expected to complete the degree in four semesters. Full-time students must register for a minimum of nine hours per academic term and a maximum of fifteen. Drew’s financial aid awards are limited to a total of six semesters. All academic requirements for the degree must be completed within five years from the date of initial matriculation.

Master of Arts in Ministry Program

Qualitative Progress: M.A. in Min. degree students must maintain a minimum 2.0 G.P.A. each semester and a cumulative minimum 2.00 G.P.A., based upon completion of at least nine credit hours per academic term. A student who fails to achieve this G.P.A. minimum is placed on academic probation for one semester. If the student is placed on strict academic probation for the following semester, she/he may be ineligible for financial assistance.

Quantitative Progress: Full-time students are expected to complete the degree in four semesters. Full-time students must register for a minimum of nine hours per academic term and a maximum of fifteen. Drew’s financial aid awards are limited to a total of six semesters. All academic requirements for the degree must be completed within five years from the date of initial matriculation.

Master of Theological Studies Program

Qualitative Progress: M.T.S. degree students must maintain a minimum 2.0 G.P.A. each semester and a cumulative minimum 2.0 G.P.A., based upon completion of a minimum of nine hours per academic term. A student who fails to achieve this G.P.A. minimum is placed on academic probation for one semester. Students who remain on academic probation for a second semester may lose their scholarship eligibility.

Quantitative Progress: Full-time students complete the degree in four semesters. This requires students to earn at least 24 credits per year and not fewer than 12 hours in any semester. Drew’s financial awards are limited to a total of six semesters. Students who have completed fewer than 24 credits at the end of their third semester or who have registered for fewer than nine credit hours in any academic term may be required to file a plan of studies approved by the Academic Standing Committee showing how they plan to complete the degree within three years. All academic requirements for the degree must be completed within five years from the date of initial matriculation.

Master of Sacred Theology Program

Qualitative Progress: S.T.M. degree students must maintain a minimum 3.00 G.P.A. each semester and a cumulative minimum 3.00 G.P.A., based upon completion of at least nine credit hours per academic term. A student who fails to achieve this G.P.A. minimum is placed on academic probation for one semester. If the student is placed on strict academic probation for the following semester, she/he may be ineligible for financial assistance.

Quantitative Progress: Full-time students are expected to complete the degree in no more than two semesters. Full-time students must register for a minimum of nine hours per academic term. Exceptions to this policy require the written permission of the Associate Academic Dean. Drew’s financial awards are limited to a total of three semesters. All academic requirements for the degree must be completed within four years from the date of initial matriculation.

Categories of Academic Probation

Probation: M.Div. and M.T.S. students with a semester or cumulative G.P.A. between 1.40 and 1.99. S.T.M. students with a semester or cumulative G.P.A. between 2.75 and 2.99. During the probationary semester the student would be restricted to 10 credit hours.

Strict Academic Probation: M.Div. and M.T.S. students with a semester or cumulative G.P.A. between 1.00 and 1.39. S.T.M. students with a semester or cumulative G.P.A. between 2.00 and 2.74. Students with two consecutive semesters on Probation.

Students on this status are restricted to 10 credit hours during the probationary semester and must complete at least 9 credit hours. M.Div. and M.T.S. students must maintain a minimum 2.0 for the probationary semester and S.T.M. students must maintain a minimum 3.00 for the probationary semester. Students who do not attain these minimums may be recommended for academic leave or withdrawal. Extended track M. Div. students must complete at least 3 credit hours during the probationary semester.

Terminal Academic Probation: M.Div. and M.T.S. students with a semester or cumulative G.P.A. below 1.00. S.T.M. students with a semester or cumulative G.P.A. below 2.00. Students with two semesters on strict academic probation.

Students on this status are restricted to 10 credit hours during the probationary semester and must complete at least 6 credit hours. M.Div. and M.T.S. students must maintain a minimum 2.00 for the probationary semester and S.T.M. students must maintain a minimum 3.00 for the probationary semester. Students who do not attain these minimums may be recommended for withdrawal without appeal.

( Students who receive all “U” grades in any one semester may be recommended for withdrawal .)

Doctor of Ministry Program

Qualitative Progress: D.Min. degree students must maintain a cumulative minimum 3.2 G.P.A. in the first three units and in the summer intensive courses. Students who fail to achieve this minimum may be withdrawn from the program or, in extenuating circumstances, be permitted by the D.Min. Committee to repeat course(s) in an attempt to achieve the minimum G.P.A. Students granted such permission who still fail to achieve the minimum G.P.A. will be withdrawn from the program.

Quantitative Progress: The normal time for completion of this less than full-time in-ministry advanced professional degree program is six semesters and a total of 30 credits distributed as follows: nine credits in the first year, nine credits in the first summer and third semester, and 12 credits for the satisfactory completion of the professional project. All requirements for the degree must be completed within five years from the date of initial matriculation. D.Min. students are normally not eligible for full-time student status.

Ph.D. Program

Students must be making qualitative and quantative academic progress to maintain financial assistance eligibility.

Qualitative Progress

Students who are subject to academic review are also subject to financial assistance review. Students must maintain at least a 3.1 GPA (3.4 for students beginning Fall 2009 and later) in doctoral programs to remain in good academic standing. Failure to maintain this average will result in a letter of warning in the first semester after the average fails to meet the standard. Continued failure to attain the minimum GPA can result in academic probation or termination from the program.

Quantative progress

Students who are receiving merit schoalrships of full tuition and stipend must be enrolled full time. Students receiving 80 percent of tuition or a full tuition waiver must carry a minimum of six credit hours per semester.

Appeals

Appeals of decisions made by the committee on Academic Standing must be made in writing by the student to the committee or to the Dean of the Graduate Division of Religion.

Minimum Degree Requirements

Institutional Review Board

Ethical and Procedural Guidelines

Human participants research at Drew University is guided by the ethical principles laid out in The Belmont Report and the procedures as described in the Department of Health and Human Services Policy for the Protection of Human Research Subjects (45 CFR, Subtitle A, Part 46).

Human Participants Research Oversight

There is often confusion about what types of projects need to be reviewed by the Drew Institutional Review Board. The short answer is that all projects need to be reviewed at some level.

The first question that needs to be answered is whether you are conducting research with human participants as research and human participants are defined by the Office of Human Research Protections (OHRP). While it seems that these would be straightforward determinations, their definitions of these concepts are very specific.

Human Participant is defined in the OHRP regulations (45 CFR 46.102(f)) as follows:

Human participant means a living individual about whom an investigator obtains either data through intervention or interaction with the individual or identifiable private information.

Intervention includes both physical procedures to collect data (e.g., venipuncture) as well as manipulations of the person or the person’s environment. Interaction includes any type of communication or contact.

Private information includes information about behavior that occurs in a context in which an individual can reasonably expect that no observation or recording is taking place, and information that has been provided for specific purposes by an individual and which the individual can reasonably expect will not be made public (e.g., a medical record). Private information must be individually identifiable (i.e., the identity of the person is or may readily be ascertained by the investigator or associated with the information).

Note that this definition of human participants excludes naturalistic observations made of individuals in public places. This type of activity involves no intervention, and reasonable people cannot assume that they will NOT be observed when they are in public places.

If you are unsure whether you are utilizing human participants as defined by OHRP in your work, please consult with the IRB Chair.

Research is defined in the OHRP regulations (45 CFR 46.102(d)) as follows:

Research means a systematic investigation, including research development, testing and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge.

Regardless of whether you personally define your project as research or not, if it is systematic and is intended to contribute to knowledge that will generalize beyond your specific project, it is research as defined by OHRP and therefore needs to be reviewed by Drew’s IRB. Click here for some examples of common projects that would not be defined as research by OHRP.

How to Determine If You Are Conducting Research:

If you know that you are conducting research with human participants as these terms are defined by OHRP, you may skip to Instructions for Submitting Research for IRB Review below to proceed with the review of your work.

For everyone else who is doing anything that involves human participants as defined by OHRP (this includes both people who believe they are not doing research as defined by OHRP and people who are not sure whether they are doing research or not), please submit the Research Determination Form, which reviews the basic details of your project. This information will help the IRB chair to determine whether you are doing research as defined by OHRP or not (or confirm what you already believe to be the case).

The IRB Chair is the only person on campus who is able to make the official determination of whether you are conducting research or not. Because researchers are intimately involved with their own work, the IRB Chair can serve as an unbiased source of review.

• If the IRB Chair determines that you are NOT conducting research as it is defined by the OHRP, no further contact with the IRB will be necessary. The Chair will provide you with a letter indicating that your work is defined as non-regulatory research and therefore does not meet the requirements for review set forth by OHRP. This, of course, does not remove your ethical responsibilities as a researcher, and you are encouraged to think carefully about the ethical issues associated with use of human participants before beginning your work.
• If the Chair determines that you ARE conducting research as it is defined by the OHRP, your project will require some level of review by the IRB. The Chair will provide you with a letter indicating that your work is defined as research and therefore does meet the requirements for review set forth by OHRP. It will then be your responsibility to proceed with IRB review of your work. The nature of that review is outlined in  Instructions for Submitting Research for IRB Review.

Instructions for Submitting Research for IRB Review:

Principal investigators can obtain instructions for submitting research for IRB review here.

IRB Membership

Current members of the Drew University IRB are:

• Bill Rogers, Associate Dean of the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies (Caspersen School Liaison)
• Allan Dawson, Assistant Professor of Anthropology (CLA Liaison)
• Laurel Kearns, Associate Professor of the Sociology of Religion and Environmental Studies (Theological School Liaison)
• Carl Savage, Director of the Doctor of Ministries Program (Doctor of Ministries Program Liaison) and IRB Chair
• Reverend Robb Shoaf, Pastor, United Methodist Church in Madison

The IRB members have completed the Human Subjects Assurance Training and the Human Participant Protections Education for Research Teams. All IRB members have also familiarized themselves with 45 CFR, Subtitle A, Part 46 and The Belmont Report.

Human Protections Administrator

• Provost Pamela Gunter-Smith

The Human Protections Administrator has completed Human Subjects Assurance Training and Human Participant Protections Education for Research Teams.