How to Complete and Submit the UTSA Independent Study Course Form

The UTSA Independent Study Course Form is a one-page fillable PDF on the One Stop Enrollment Center’s Registrar Forms page. You fill it out with your faculty supervisor, attach a syllabus the supervisor writes, collect signatures from the instructor, department chair, and dean’s office (plus a graduate advisor if you’re a grad student), and upload the package to the Registrar’s Document Uploader so staff can manually register you.

Line Up These Pieces First

You can’t fill out the form cold. Before you download anything, you need three things: a faculty member who has agreed to supervise the study, a syllabus the two of you have built together, and the course logistics (CRN, subject code, course number, section number) that your department sets up on its end. The CRN and section number aren’t yours to invent; they are assigned when the department creates the section.¹

Keep one ceiling in mind as you plan. The UTSA catalog caps independent study and directed research at six semester credit hours toward a bachelor’s degree, regardless of discipline. If you’re pursuing a double major, a major and minor, or concurrent degrees, the six hours is a combined total, not per program.²

What the Attached Syllabus Must Include

UTSA requires the faculty member to write the syllabus and attach it to the form. The syllabus must contain all of the following:¹

Course number and name as listed in the catalog
Instructor name, email, official office hours, and office location
Description of the topics the study will cover
Every deliverable with a specific due date
Grade breakdown showing how each deliverable is weighted
Meeting frequency and duration (your contact hours)
Course policies on participation, late work, and similar matters
A link to the UTSA Common Syllabus information page

Missing or vague deliverables are the most common reason an independent study runs into trouble later, so push for concrete assignments and dates rather than a single end-of-semester paper.

Filling Out the Form

Download the current version of the Independent Study Course Form from the One Stop Registrar Forms page.³ It has two sections.

Student and Course Information

At the top, enter your first name, middle initial, last name, myUTSA ID, phone number, and preferred email. Then enter the course details supplied by your department: CRN (the five-digit Course Reference Number), subject code, course number, and section number.¹

Signature Lines

The lower section collects four signatures:¹

Instructor (the faculty member supervising the study)
Graduate Advisor (graduate-level independent study only)
Department Chair of the department offering the course
Dean’s Office representative from the college

Undergraduates skip the Graduate Advisor line and need the other three.

Getting It Signed Through Your College

Routing depends on which college owns the course. The College of AI, Cyber and Computing uses a college-specific DocuSign version of the form that moves automatically from instructor to department chair to associate dean.⁴ The College of Sciences handles routing through staff instead: the faculty sponsor sends the signed form to department staff, who add course details, get the chair’s signature, and forward it to the dean’s office.⁵ Ask your department which method applies before you start chasing signatures.

Submitting to the Registrar

Once every signature is in place and the syllabus is attached, send the package to the Registrar. UTSA accepts two submission methods and does not accept fax or email:¹

Document Uploader (preferred). Log in with your myUTSA ID and passphrase, click “Upload a new document,” select “Registrar” as the department, and upload. Submit the form and the syllabus as separate files; combining them slows processing, and no single file can exceed 10 MB.⁶
In person at a One Stop Enrollment Center. Main Campus is in John Peace Library, Room 110; Downtown Campus is in Frio Street Building, Room 2.400. Walk-in hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.⁷

If your college routes through DocuSign, you may still have to download the fully signed form and syllabus from DocuSign and upload them to the Document Uploader yourself. That’s what the CAICC workflow instructs students to do so the Registrar can process the registration.⁴

Confirming Registration and Meeting the Census Date

Independent study registrations are entered by hand, so there’s a lag. After you submit, log in to your myUTSA Account at my.utsa.edu, go to Student Services, and check your registration status under the Registration and Records card to confirm the course appears on your schedule.⁸

The course must be on your record by the census date. For Spring 2026, census is February 4; for Fall 2026, it is September 3.⁹¹⁰ Census is also the last day to drop without a grade and the final payment deadline, so missing it can cost you the credit for the term or create financial aid problems. Submit two to three weeks ahead to absorb processing time and any signature snags.

F-1 Students: Watch the Online-Class Limit

If you hold an F-1 visa, an independent study can count as an online or distance-learning course for immigration purposes, depending on how your meetings are structured. Federal rules let F-1 students count only one online or distance-learning class (up to three credits) toward the full-time enrollment requirement each term.¹¹ If your study is mostly remote with occasional in-person meetings, talk to your international student advisor before you enroll.

1
The University of Texas at San Antonio. Independent Study Course Form
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The University of Texas at San Antonio. General Academic Regulations – Courses
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University of Texas at San Antonio One Stop. UT San Antonio Registrar Forms
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College of AI, Cyber and Computing. Undergraduate Studies Forms Approval Workflow
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University of Texas at San Antonio College of Sciences. Routing Process for Individual Course Forms
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University of Texas at San Antonio One Stop. Document Uploader
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University of Texas at San Antonio One Stop. Contact Us
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UT San Antonio One Stop. Class Registration
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The University of Texas at San Antonio. Spring 2026 Academic Calendar
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University of Texas at San Antonio. Fall 2026 Academic Calendar
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Study in the States. Full Course of Study