Change in advisor triggered by the advisor or co-advisor’s departure from UW–Madison
(Scenario: A student’s advisor or co-advisor retires or leaves the university)
Approved by HSRP Faculty, March 10, 2024
1. Options
A change in advisor is not necessarily required when a student’s advisor or co-advisor leaves UW-Madison. There are four options to consider for the student’s academic progress.
- Option A: Faculty who retire or otherwise leave UW–Madison can automatically maintain their graduate faculty status at UW–Madison for one year (see section 3.05c). Students should discuss with the advisor or co-advisor leaving or retiring and ask if they will be willing to continue in their advising capacity and maintain the advisor/advisee relationship.If the student is more than one year from defending their thesis or dissertation, annual extensions of graduate faculty status can be approved by the departmental executive committee and the approval of the Graduate Faculty Executive Committee, as outlined in Section 3.0.5c.
- Option B: The student could discuss with the faculty member leaving if they would like to remain in a co-advising capacity from their new academic institution or be a member of the student’s thesis or dissertation committee, as outlined in policy number UW-1232 and UW policy 1201. This option would need to be approved by the HSRP program faculty.
- Option C: If the advisor is going to a different university, the student should explore the possibility of continuing to work with the advisor or co-advisor by transferring to the individual’s new campus, particularly when no other faculty at UW–Madison are familiar with or have expertise in the student’s research topic.
- Option D: If the student cannot relocate along with the advisor or co-advisor, or the advisor/co-advisor does not maintain the graduate faculty status, then a new advisor should be identified through the process described in Section 2 (below). Changing an advisor in this scenario does not necessarily mean that a student must restart their thesis or dissertation research. The student’s thesis, preliminary exam or dissertation committee should determine if it is reasonable to continue the project or perform complementary research with a new advisor for completion of the project in a timely manner.
For each Option described above, the HSRP program will honor funding commitments (primarily length of funding) made to the student as outlined in the letter of acceptance to the HSRP program, and as long as the student meets the satisfactory progress
criteria and is in good standing in the HSRP program. The criteria for being in good standing is based on their annual progress report.
2. Finding a new advisor
This process is the same as outlined in Section 4 in the student-initiated advisor change document.