UIL is community based, where your own community is the “campus”, with no other residency requirements at any UIL campus. Learners design their entire program. UIL is an assessment university that assesses an individual’s lifelong learning. UIL honors the community, its resources, and existing educational institutions as viable learning environments. Approving documented learning, confirming the design and scope of the degree, determining how credits are to be evaluated, and approving a major study are the role of the provost. UIL enrolls learners for one academic year (two semesters or longer) for master’s degrees, and two academic years (four semesters or longer) for doctoral degrees. UIL also assesses a range of spiritual/religious degree programs that adult learners have designed with personally-contracted consultants, tutors, and other learning institutions approved by their provosts.
Required Minimum: 30+ semester units
- Supply UIL with official transcripts from other institutions for all graduate courses and any special learning credit, plus bachelor’s degree transcript.
- Complete 30+ semester units of graduate course work (inclusive of relevant life learning —most master’s transcripts reflect at least a two-year, 60+ unit degree).
- Many of the courses, or their equivalents, described in university catalogs at the bachelor’s level are also offered at graduate level. Degree levels are arbitrary and can only be distinguished by learners and faculty making institutional determinations of levels of development and depth of study. UIL considers its learning environment to be unusually sophisticated at all degree levels because so much emphasis is placed on the integration of the three highest levels of learning — analysis, synthesis and critical assessment. Further, the learners UIL attracts are generally mature persons with a great deal of life and practical experience. Each learner works with a provost and/or tutor to develop an individualized curriculum.