GradPath Frequently Asked Questions

You can access a student’s GradPath form by logging into UAccess Instructor Center

Use the search fields to look up the student, click Search, and you are directed to the student’s GradPath Forms page. You can view any forms the student has created, including the approval status and Workflow Approval Path, but cannot approve or deny unless the form has been routed to you.

On the main page of your Student Center, click the dropdown menu in the Advising link.

Click the link to GradPath

You are first directed to the landing page, which contains links and other helpful information. From there, click the GradPath Forms link to reach your forms page.

This information is visible in the Workflow Approval Path, which displays at the bottom of the form as soon as you Submit. You can also go to any form and use View Current to open it and see the path.

The Workflow Approval Path shows you where the form has been, the action taken, and where it’s going. If any approver denies your form, you will receive an e-mail notifying you, and you can open the form to see the message about why it was denied. When someone approves your form, it will route automatically to the next approver.

A single approval step may require more than one person to approve (e.g. co-chairs of a committee), or a step may require one of several people to approve (e.g. at the Graduate College). Click on the blue link in any approval group to see more details regarding the person/people in the group.

Note: The Pre-check Stage section displays if the program has asked that the Graduate Coordinator review and approve forms before they go to faculty. Many departments choose to have forms go directly to the faculty for approval and thus skip this pre-check stage.

Approval for a Plan of Study is needed from the faculty advisor(s) named by the student on the form. Doctoral committee appointment forms and exam announcements require approval from the member the student designates as chair (or the two co-chairs). These forms also require programlevel approval from the Director of Graduate Studies.

There are two forms (the Master’s/Specialist Committee Appointment form and the doctoral Prospectus/Proposal Confirmation form) that are approved or submitted by the graduate program coordinator in the department rather than a faculty approver.

• You will receive an email from GradPathForms@grad.arizona.edu. This email identifies the form and the student who submitted it. It also contains a link to the specified form in UAccess Student. Note: Make sure your email filter is set to accept emails from the sender indicated above.

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• There is a link in your UAccess Instructor Center (main page, upper right) for “GradPath Pending Transactions". From this page, you can open any form needing your attention and take the needed action. (It’s a good idea to check this list regularly in case e-mails are missed.) There are instructions for using this page available at http://grad.arizona.edu/gradpath.

The person you are looking for either needs appropriate Graduate Faculty or Special Member status to serve on committees or needs the required permissions set up in UAccess. Contact the Graduate Coordinator in your department to follow up and resolve the issue.

1. Click on the link in the email. If prompted, log in with your NetID and password and then will be taken directly to the form that needs review and approval.
2. Review the information on the form. Be sure to look for comments or warnings near the bottom of the form. Scroll down until you locate the section you need to complete and use the appropriate button to approve or deny the form.
3. If appropriate, enter any comments. Note: If you are denying the form, you must enter a comment.
4. Click the button for the appropriate action. Note: If the Approve and Deny buttons are not available, you do not need to take any action on the form and the email notification was for informational purposes only. This information is specified in the email.

All GradPath notifications go to your official UA email address. If you aren’t sure what email address is being used, log into UAccess Employee, as you do to submit your timesheet. Navigate to Main Menu > Self Service > Personal Information > Personal Information Summary. The Graduate College cannot use a different e-mail address for GradPath.

There may be an issue with how your completed steps have been tracked on your record. Please contact your degree counselor at the Graduate College.

You will either need to have e-mail forwarded from your official UA account to the account you use, OR you will need to check the GradPath Pending Transactions page in your Instructor Center.

The forms are on file and do not have to be re-submitted electronically, but are not visible in GradPath, which you will use for your next form. If paper forms were submitted, the system picks up at the next step. GradPath may allow you to create forms you already completed on paper – you should NOT re-do a form unless the information has changed.

It is the Graduate College’s system for electronic processing of graduate students’ forms for their degrees, replacing the previous paper forms. Students complete and submit forms online through UAccess Student. An automated workflow engine then routes the electronic forms to everyone who needs to see or approve them. 

When a Plan of Study is submitted in GradPath, the Faculty Advisor must complete this section on the form. This is the only time it will have to be completed, and you cannot approve or deny until you have done so.

Note: If a doctoral student submitted a paper Plan of Study before GradPath was in use, the committee chair is asked to complete this section on the student’s final defense committee appointment form.

This is the first form you must complete in GradPath – you will not be able to open any of the other required forms until this is completed. To see the form, click Create New. Make sure you’ve read the General Information section. Then, in the Certified section, read the statement and check the box.

This form does not require any approvals; once submitted you are immediately able to access the next applicable form. To return to your forms page, click the Return button.

This redirects you to the student’s main GradPath page, where you may view any other forms pending, submitted, approved, or denied for that student.

If GradPath recognizes that the information on a form violates a Graduate College policy, the student receives this warning when the form is submitted and it is saved and displayed directly above the comment field. A validation warning normally means that the student would need a petition approved by the Graduate College in order to have the GradPath form approved.

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The Workflow Approval Path shows you where the form has been, the action taken, and where it’s going. Approvals progress through all the routing in a section before progressing to the next, and each section has at least one approval group. The approval group may be contain a single name or may have multiple approvers. Click on the blue link in any approval group to see more details regarding the person/people in the group.

Note: The Pre-check Stage section displays if the program has asked that the Graduate Coordinator be the first reviewer for their students’ forms. Many departments choose to have forms go directly to the faculty for approval and thus skip this pre-check stage.

Please contact the Graduate College degree counselor for your program.

Directors of Graduate Studies and faculty who are named by students as a faculty advisor or chair of a committee are required to approve or deny the applicable form.

The forms can only be submitted in a controlled sequence. You cannot create a new form if there are prior forms that have not been submitted and approved. In addition, the Modify function is only available once a form has been approved or denied.

You must be logged into UAccess (i.e. with a WebAuth log-in) in order to open GradPath forms. Are you on campus? If not, VPN is required in order to log in. If you don’t have a VPN client, it is available for free from UITS. Setting up VPN is normally fairly simple.

If you are on campus or have VPN and still having connection issues, contact the 24/7 IT Support Center at 626-TECH (626-8324).