To earn a UAF degree, satisfy the following sets of requirements:

• General University Requirements
• General Education Requirements
• Degree Requirements
• Program (Major) Requirements

If a degree program is delivered collaboratively within the UA system, credits earned from each UA institution will be counted toward the fulfillment of degree requirements and the minimum institutional residency requirements. Contact Admissions to bring any credit from another UA system in. Credits do not transfer automatically. Institutional residency requirements are the minimum number of credits that must be earned from the campus where the degree is earned.

Majors

A major may be declared when a student is admitted to UAF as an undergraduate degree student. If a major isn't chosen, the student will be enrolled as an exploratory studies student. 

A major from UAF consists of a minimum of 30 credits, at least 12 of which have to be earned at UAF.

Students must have a cumulative GPA of at least 2.0 in their major and overall. A  grade of C- or higher is required for all courses for the degree including the major, minor, general education requirements and degree requirements unless otherwise specified. Some majors require higher GPAs for their program.

Capstone

The capstone experience serves as a culmination of undergraduate education, showcasing students' capacity to integrate diverse learning. It requires students to forge connections among concepts, competencies and bodies of knowledge, enabling them to synthesize and apply their learning in novel and complex contexts.

The capstone demands the integration and application of learning from various studies, demonstrating synthesis and advanced competence across broad and specialized studies. This process involves adapting knowledge to novel contexts and questions, culminating in the creation of a creative or scholarly project. Such projects require a broad knowledge base, technical proficiency, effective information gathering, synthesis, interpretation, presentation and reflective skills.

Adding or Changing a Major

Undergraduate students may add or change majors by completing the Add or Change Major form available through the Office of the Registrar's forms page. If a request is received after the first day of the semester, the change is applied to the following term. Graduating seniors must have a change of major submitted prior to their bachelor's degree being awarded.

Concentrations

A concentration is an area of emphasis within a student’s major. Some majors at UAF require a concentration, others do not. A student may only earn one degree in a specific discipline once. Using different concentrations within a degree program to count as a different degree is not allowed. Double concentrations are permitted with departmental approval.

Minors

A minor is a component of a bachelor's degree in an area of study in addition to the student's major. The minor is an opportunity to explore an additional area of interest. Students can declare a minor when submitting an admission application or by filling out the Declaration of Minor form through the Office of the Registrar.

Minor Requirements

• A minor from UAF consists of a minimum of 15 credits, at least 3 of which have to be earned at UAF.
• Some minors may require department approval.
• Students must earn a C- or higher in each course required for the minor unless otherwise noted.
• Students must earn a cumulative GPA of at least 2.0 (C) in the minor.
• The same academic catalog year must be used for the bachelor's degree and minor.
• An Associate of Applied Science degree or certificate of at least 30 credits earned at any accredited college or university may be used to meet requirements for a minor in the Bachelor of Arts degree.
• Students must satisfactorily complete the requirements for a minor before the bachelor's degree can be awarded. 

The Bachelor of Arts degree requires a minor. A minor is optional for the following degrees unless otherwise noted by the major:

• Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences
• Bachelor of Applied Management
• Bachelor of Business Administration
• Bachelor of Fine Arts
• Bachelor of Music
• Bachelor of Science
• Bachelor of Security and Emergency Management
• Bachelor of Sport and Recreation Business

Students may use the What-If feature in DegreeWorks (accessed through UAOnline) to review minor requirements and how credits already earned apply to the requirements. Results in DegreeWorks will be more accurate once the minor has been declared.

Second Bachelor’s Degree

UAF graduates who want to earn a second bachelor’s degree must complete at least 24 hours of credit beyond the first bachelor’s degree. Students must meet all general university requirements, degree requirements and major requirements for both degrees.

Students who earned a bachelor’s degree from another college or university must be accepted for admission as transfer students. All general university requirements, including residency requirements, degree and major requirements must be met. Students who graduated from a regionally accredited college or university will be considered to have completed the equivalent of the UAF baccalaureate general education requirements.

Double Degrees or Major

Double Degree

Students who want to earn more than one UAF bachelor’s degree must complete all general requirements as well as all major and minor requirements for the selected degrees. At least 24 semester credit hours beyond the total required for the first degree need to be earned before any additional degrees can be awarded. For a double degree, students may follow requirements from two different catalogs. An application for graduation will need to be submitted for each degree when the student is ready to graduate.

Double Major

For a double major, required courses for both majors are completed at the same time under a single catalog year. Only one application for graduation is required for a double major.

Degree Policies

Residence Credit

Residence credit is course credit earned through any unit of UAF. Formal classroom instruction, correspondence study, distance-delivered courses, individual study or research at UAF are all considered residence credit.

Transfer credit, advanced placement credit, credit for prior learning, military service credit and credit granted through nationally prepared examinations are not considered resident credit. None of these types of credit can be applied to UAF residency requirements.

UAF residence credit takes precedence over any nonresident credit. For example, if a student has AP credit for a course, but takes the same courses at UAF, the AP credit will be excluded and the UAF course will be applied to the degree requirements.

Residency Requirement

Most universities have residency requirements that call for a certain number of credits toward a degree to be earned at the degree-granting school. At UAF, the residency requirement for bachelor’s degrees is 30 resident credits.

Degree Requirements and Time Limits

A student may complete degree requirements in effect and published in the UAF catalog in any one of the previous seven academic years in which the student is enrolled as a degree student for a bachelor’s degree. A student is considered enrolled in a degree program when they have completed the registration procedure. If not enrolled for a semester or more, or if enrolled as nondegree, a student isn’t considered as a degree student during that time.

Exceptions to Degree Requirements

Occasionally, an undergraduate student may request an exception to an academic requirement, policy or regulation. Requests for an academic exception must be approved by petition. If a petition concerns a disability, the coordinator of Disability Services will be consulted. Undergraduate petition forms are available at the Office of the Registrar or on the Office of the Registrar's forms page. Forms must be returned to the Office of the Registrar with the required signatures. The Office of the Registrar will note the completed petition in DegreeWorks once the appropriate person or committee has made a decision to either approve or deny the request. Academic petitions fall into three categories, and each involves a different process:

General Education Requirements Petitions

Petitions addressing baccalaureate general education requirements, degree ethics, library science or Alaska Native-themed requirements must be approved by the student's advisor and the head of the department of the academic area involved. Submit the signed petition to the Office of the Registrar. It will then be forwarded to the Faculty Senate General Education Requirements Committee for consideration.

Major or Minor Degree Requirement Petitions

Petitions addressing substitute courses or waiving a requirement within a major or a minor program must be approved by the advisor and the department or head of the major or minor area. Submit the signed petition to the Office of the Registrar.

Petitions for Other Requirements

Petitions addressing the general university and/or specific requirements for a student's degree or other academic policies must be approved by the advisor and the dean or director of the college or school in which the major is located. Submit the signed petition to the Office of the Registrar. It will then be forwarded to the provost for consideration.

Reserving Courses for Graduate Programs

Seniors who have a few remaining requirements for a bachelor’s degree may take courses at the F400 or F600 graduate course level and have them reserved for an advanced degree. Courses reserved toward a graduate program cannot be counted toward the requirements for the bachelor’s degree. 

To reserve one or more courses, students must be in their final year of an undergraduate program. Submit a written request to the Office of the Registrar during the first four weeks of the semester. The request should identify which semester courses are desired to be reserved for graduate study and not counted toward the bachelor’s degree. Reserving courses does not, however, assure that a graduate advisory committee will accept them as part of a student's eventual graduate program.

Graduate-level courses will automatically be reserved for graduate degrees unless approved by petition to be used toward the undergraduate program.

Graduation

Responsibility

It is the student's responsibility to meet all requirements for graduation. Students are encouraged to communicate regularly with their academic advisor and to use DegreeWorks throughout their college career to ensure they are on track to graduate.

Application for Graduation

A formal application for graduation must be filed with the Office of the Registrar. Applying prior to the semester planned for graduation is encouraged. Applications for graduation need to be submitted no later than the published deadline in the academic calendar. Applications submitted after the published deadline are processed for the following semester. Students who apply for graduation and who do not complete degree requirements by the end of the term must reapply for graduation.

Diplomas and Commencement

UAF issues diplomas to graduates three times a year: in September, January and June. Students who complete degree requirements for UA Board of Regents-approved academic programs during the academic year are invited to participate in the annual commencement ceremony at the end of the spring semester.

Names of students receiving degrees/certificates appear in the commencement program and are released to the media unless a student submits a written request to the graduation department not to do so. (See Information Release and FERPA.)

Graduates are responsible for ordering caps and gowns through the UAF bookstore in early spring.

Graduation with Honors

​Graduation with Latin honors is a tribute that recognizes academic achievement. Candidates who have earned a minimum of 30 credits in residence at UAF and a minimum institutional grade point average of 3.50 at the bachelor’s level will graduate with honors.

GPA calculations for graduation with honors do not include:

• Credits that were excluded due to retaking a course or through the Fresh Start Program

• Noncredit courses, transfer credits, and credit by examination

Please see Grading System and Grade Point Average Computation for more information on how the UAF Institutional GPA is calculated. Students who meet these academic criteria will graduate according to one of the following honor levels:

These designations are effective for all who graduate in fall 2021 going forward and will not be retroactively applied to anyone who graduated prior to the fall 2021 semester.

Undergraduate bachelor’s study at UAF is characterized by a common set of learning experiences known as the General Education Requirements. If a student has completed a bachelor's degree, an associate of arts degree or an associate of science degree from a regionally accredited institution, they will be considered to have completed the equivalent of the general education requirements when they have been officially accepted to an undergraduate degree program at UAF.

Courses that satisfy the GER have course numbers ending with X. For example, WRTG F111X and COM F141X meet specific GER communication requirements. Courses used to satisfy general education requirements can also be used to satisfy minor requirements. Natural science and mathematics credits used to satisfy general education requirements can also be used to satisfy major requirements. If additional courses are added to GER in later catalog years, students may use them to fulfill a specific GER in this catalog year. Students must earn a C- grade or higher in each course used to meet a baccalaureate GER.

General Education Objective and Learning Outcomes

General education objective and learning outcomes for undergraduate students seeking baccalaureate degrees at the University of Alaska Fairbanks:

1. Build knowledge of human institutions, sociocultural processes, and the physical and natural world through the study of the natural and social sciences, technologies, mathematics, humanities, histories, languages and the arts.
   • Competence will be demonstrated for the foundational information in each subject area, its context and significance, and the methods used in advancing each.
2. Develop intellectual and practical skills across the curriculum, including inquiry and analysis, critical and creative thinking, problem solving, written and oral communication, information literacy, technological competence, and collaborative learning.
   • Proficiency will be demonstrated across the curriculum through critical analysis of proffered information, well-reasoned solutions to problems or inferences drawn from evidence, effective written and oral communication, and satisfactory outcomes of group projects.
3. Acquire tools for effective civic engagement in local through global contexts, including ethical reasoning, intercultural competence, and knowledge of Alaska and Alaska issues.
   • Facility will be demonstrated through analyses of issues including dimensions of ethics, human and cultural diversity, conflicts and interdependencies, globalization and sustainability.   
4. Integrate and apply learning, including synthesis and advanced accomplishment across general and specialized studies, adapting them to new settings, questions and responsibilities, and forming a foundation for lifelong learning.
   • Preparation will be demonstrated through the production of a creative or scholarly product that requires broad knowledge, appropriate technical proficiency, information collection, synthesis, interpretation, presentation and reflection.  

General Education Requirements at a Glance

Minimum Requirements for General Education Requirements: 35-40 credits

Refer to tables below for specific courses.

Communication - 9 credits

Arts - 3 credits

 Humanities - 3-5 credits

Social Sciences -  6 credits

Additional Arts / Humanities / Social Sciences - 3-5 credits

Mathematics 3-4 credits

¹

Credit may be earned for either MATH F122X or MATH F151X but not both.

²

Credit may be earned for either MATH F230X or MATH F251X but not both.​

³

Or any math course having one of these as a prerequisite.

Natural Sciences - 8 credits

The Alaska Native-themed (ANT) requirement is a degree requirement for all bachelor's, associate of arts and associate of science degrees. 

Students may choose from a number of courses to meet the total 3-credit hour Alaska Native-themed degree requirement. These courses explore Alaska Native peoples and cultures through at least one of the following: values, language, art, knowledge, governance, subsistence, experience and ways of life. This requirement does not add to the total number of credits required for General Education Requirement (GER) or degree completion. Although the Alaska Native-themed course requirement is separate from GERs, some ANT courses are also GERs. These courses are marked with an "X" and can count toward both a GER and ANT.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks is proud to acknowledge the Alaska Native nations upon whose traditional lands its seven campuses reside. In Fairbanks, the Troth Yeddha' Campus is located on the traditional lands of the Ch'eno Xwut'ana (Dena) people of the lower Tanana River, and the branch campuses and extension offices are hosted on Indigenous lands throughout the state. UAF is federally designated as an Alaska Native Serving Institution, with over 20 percent of the student body being Alaska Native and/or American Indian.

To fulfill UAF's mission and to honor the first peoples of Alaska, all incoming undergraduate students learn about Alaska Native peoples and their perspectives and worldviews through the Alaska Native-themed course requirement. This requirement was developed through the efforts of the statewide Alaska Native Studies Council and was supported by the UAF student government and the UAF Faculty Senate.

Alaska Native-themed Courses