The grade Incomplete (I) may be assigned when an undergraduate or graduate student’s work is of passing quality but is incomplete. The petition for Incomplete grade may be obtained from the Office of the Registrar website: registrar.sa.ucsb.edu/Forms
Petitioning process. An Incomplete grade may be placed on a student’s record only if the completed Petition for an Incomplete Grade is signed by the instructor and is on file in the Office of the Registrar by the last day of the quarter. In the absence of the petition or of a specific grade other than I, the registrar will record a grade of F, NP, or U. An Incomplete Grade processing fee is charged to the student’s BARC account for each Incomplete grade.
Completion deadline. The student is entitled to have the grade of Incomplete replaced by a passing grade as determined by the instructor concerned, and to receive unit credit and appropriate grade points, upon satisfactory completion of the coursework. Coursework must be completed by the end of the term following the term in which the I grade was reported, whether or not the student is enrolled for the quarter or the course is offered. Students are not required to re-enroll in the course in order to complete remaining coursework. Unless the work is completed and a grade is reported to the Office of the Registrar by the deadline, the I grade will be changed automatically to F, NP, or U, as appropriate.
If the instructor is unavailable, the chair of the department in which the course was offered is authorized to supervise completion of the work and to make the appropriate grade change. The instructor and chair also have authority to extend the deadline for completion in the event of unusual circumstances that would clearly impose an unfair hardship on the student if the original deadline were maintained.
An Incomplete grade on the student’s record at the time of graduation in a course not necessary for the fulfillment of degree requirements may be removed only up to the end of the fifth week of the term following the date of graduation. An I grade may be removed by the student’s submission of completed coursework to the faculty member for the assigning of a new grade. If not removed, the I grade remains an I permanently.
Grade changes to Incomplete. A grade may be changed to an I only with the approval of the dean of the student’s college and successful completion of the petitioning process.
Graduate students. Graduate students should consult the Academic Eligibility for Graduate Students section of this catalog , for details on the possible ramifications of I grades.