1) Students may, during their career at the University of Maine at Farmington, pursue independent study, i.e. an academic project, developed in coordination with a faculty advisor, in order to explore a topic not covered by the UMF curriculum.
2) Students may also arrange for an internship, again with a faculty advisor, in order to have an
off-campus experience conducive to their academic program.
3) Students may also request individualized instruction, i.e. take a catalog course during a term in which it is not being offered. However, unlike the other two individualized study arrangements,
individualized instruction will be approved only under exceptional circumstances. In particular,
students must check first with their advisor and/or division chair to see if the course will in fact
be offered again soon, as this is always preferable.
Individualized study arrangements are privileges which should not be presumed. Students must
have a proven record of academic success which indicates that they will be able to work
independently. For this reason, these arrangements are not available to first-year students or to
students on probation. In addition, these arrangements may not be used to satisfy General Education distribution requirements.
The appropriate form (found under Forms and Documents), requiring signatures from the student, the student’s advisor, the supervising faculty member, and the supervising faculty member’s division chair, must be filed with the Merrill Center and approved by the Provost (or his/her designee). Students must clear their plans with all concerned and should not assume that any of these approvals will be automatically given.
Registration for individualized study courses should, ideally, take place during the regular registration period and will ordinarily not be approved after the first day of classes. Please note
that (1) individualized study courses begin only when all approvals have been granted and the
student is actually registered (i.e. appears on a class roster), and (2) these courses will not be
approved after the fact or if the approval procedure is not followed.
