Plan of Study Instructions

New students should meet with their adviser or graduate director to develop a Plan of Study before completing the online form. Details on how students access the online form, the committee's electronic approval process, and how changes are made to a plan are below. Students enrolled in the Engineering Management program should contact Engineering Management Program personnel to set up a Plan of Study.

  1. Students meet with adviser or graduate director to develop a Plan of Study.
  2. Access the online Plan of Study at: https://gradplan.engr.ku.edu/, and make sure that Cookies and Javascript are enabled.
  3. Select degree — students will be asked to fill in their KUID, major, KU employment, and topic of interest. PhD students are also required to provide an estimated date for the qualifying exam, residency, research skills, comprehensive exam, and responsible scholarship date.
  4. Select committee — master's students (with the exception of master of civil engineering majors) are required to enter in at least three committee members, and doctoral students are required to enter at least three committee members and one outside member. Students who have members on their committee outside of KU will need to:
    1. Click on "Add Member," and search for the individual within the database.
    2. If the individual is not in the database, students will need to click "Propose a committee member," which is located just below the "Name" box. Committee members outside of the KU campus in Lawrence will be sent information about how to log in to the online Plan of Study system.It is important that students meet with their adviser or graduate director to determine who will be on the committee before completing this step.
  5. Enter courses — enter the courses required to complete a degree; students should enter this information to the best of their ability after meeting with their adviser or graduate director, and reviewing the information provided in the Graduate Catalog and departmental Websites provided. Courses should be updated if a student’s plan changes. The Plan defaults to 10 lines for courses; to add more courses, students will need to enter in up to 10 courses, click “submit,” and then return to the course section and click “update courses.”
  6. Submit plan - this option will only appear after steps 3-5 are completed

Electronic Approval Process

Departmental graduate advisers and personnel will be notified via e-mail when a student has submitted a Plan of Study. A link to the student's Plan of Study will be provided in the e-mail, which is automatically sent to each member of the committee. Committee members will be required to log in to the Plan of Study system to access the student's records. Committee members will use their KU Online ID and password to log in to view, approve, deny, or suggest changes to a student's Plan of Study. Committee members outside of KU will be provided with a username and password to log in to the system. After logging in, committee members will need to click on “Committee Pages,” which is located on the top part of the page.

E-mails, which contain a link to a student's Plan of Study, will be sent to the following individuals in numerical order:

  1. Committee Chair
  2. Committee members - The committee chair receives an e-mail before notification is sent to each committee member. Note that committee members will only receive e-mail notifications once the chair has approved the student's plan.
  3. Departmental graduate adviser/director
  4. Departmental graduate personnel

Students will receive e-mail notification after their plan has been approved by all members of the committee.

Changes to a Student's Plan of Study

Students are responsible for updating their Plan of Study when modifications are made. Committee members who desire to make changes to a student's plan should notify the student, who will update the online plan. Committee chairs will receive a notification to approve any changes when a student’s plan has been modified; committee members will only receive a courtesy notification unless the student has indicated that he or she would like approval from all committee members. The plan must be re-approved by the chair, or entire committee (if the option is selected), before a student’s plan is moved to ‘approved.’

Plan of Study Training

Beginning in spring 2011, all students required to have a Plan of Study on file will need to complete a training session in Blackboard. Students will not be allowed to enroll for classes until the training is completed. Students will be asked to answer a series of questions based on the material presented in the training manual. Workshops on the Plan of Study will be offered throughout the year. Workshops will be posted to the online School of Engineering calendar.