The Graduate School expects all graduate programs to encourage and provide opportunities for immersion of doctoral students in scholarship.  Immersion goals can be achieved by multiple means, including, but not limited to, individual and group research training; providing access to resources such as libraries, research equipment, scholarly materials, and laboratories; providing networking opportunities with UNCG and external scholars and graduate students; participation in scholarly seminars presented by scholars from UNCG or elsewhere; assisting with developing applications for external funding of scholarly endeavors; participation at scholarly conferences; and publications or other forms of scholarly dissemination.

Doctoral students are expected to satisfy an immersion requirement, which provides them the opportunity for an extended period of intensive study and intellectual and professional development among a community of scholars.

Immersion “allows students to concentrate focused time on their degree, acquire the necessary habits, attitudes, skills, and insights” (CGS, 2005) required for contributions to scholarship and have opportunities to work closely with other scholars, including faculty and other graduate students. These scholarly skills, attitudes, and experiences go beyond acquiring knowledge in classes and in experience in professional practice.

The Immersion Requirement for doctoral degree programs (Ph.D., Ed.D., D.M.A., D.N.P.) can be accomplished through one of two mechanisms:

1. Two consecutive semesters of six-credit-hour enrollment on campus. Programs will be expected to provide opportunities during those two semesters to cultivate immersion in scholarship and achieve the goals of residency. Students completing residency via full-time enrollment should understand residency goals and plan not only to complete required courses, but also to sustain scholarly engagement and immersion in research, scholarship and professional development.
2. Program-specific alternative immersion plan. Academic degree programs may propose alternative methods by which enrolled students in the program will achieve immersion goals to be approved by the Graduate School. The approved plans will be documented in the Catalog as well as on the program’s Plan of Study template. Program-specific alternatives may be proposed for doctoral degree programs offered online or for site-based programs.

Courses taken by UNCG degree students via inter-institutional registration earn immersion credit as if they were courses on UNCG’s campus.