University of Florida College of Medicine — Dismissal & Appeals

Written by Zachary Gaynor, attorney · The Florida Bar, admitted 2016 · court admissions. Reviewed September 3, 2026.

Who decides whether a UF medical student is dismissed?

The Academic Status Committee (ASC) decides promotion, remediation, probation and dismissal at the University of Florida College of Medicine. A dismissal is appealed to an ad hoc Dean’s Advisory Committee, and the appeal must be filed within 10 business days of the date on the decision letter — not the date you received it.

The Academic Status Committee

The ASC carries eleven voting members. Its chair is appointed by the Senior Associate Dean of Educational Affairs to a three-year renewable term, and quorum is six or more members including the chair. The committee’s published charge is to review each student’s progress and determine status “with regard to promotion, remediation, probation, or dismissal.” One detail worth knowing: the fourth-year student member is excluded from voting on probation and dismissal.

Which body hears which appeal

UF does not run one appeal route. It runs four, and filing into the wrong one costs time you do not have:

• An academic concern or probation decision is appealed back to the ASC itself.
• Lack of advancement, a required course repeat, or delayed graduation goes to an ad hoc Appeals Committee, with the ASC chair sitting as a non-voting member.
• Dismissal goes to an ad hoc Dean’s Advisory Committee — the Dean and the College’s Senior Associate Deans, with the Senior Associate Dean of Educational Affairs non-voting. The chair votes only to break a tie or where quorum is not met.
• Conduct suspension or expulsion leaves the College entirely and runs under UF Regulation 4.040.

The handbook names that dismissal body three different ways — Dean’s Advisory Committee, Deans’ Advisory Committee, and Deans Advisory Committee. It is one committee. Address the appeal to the Dean and copy the Senior Associate Dean of Educational Affairs so a naming argument never arises.

The deadlines, and the trap inside them

• All ASC appeals: 10 business days from the date of the decision letter. The clock runs from the letter, so days spent in the mail or unread in a portal are days gone.
• Personal appearance: at least 5 business days’ notice after the appeal is submitted.
• Grade grievance: a written concern and a meeting request within one month of the grade posting, then a written grievance within two weeks of that meeting.
• Conduct track under Regulation 4.040: 10 Class Days from the date of the decision letter.

Read those last two together. Both say ten. They do not mean the same thing. “Business days” run whenever the University is open. “Class Days” exclude University holidays, closures, breaks and other business days when classes are not in session. Over winter or summer break the conduct clock stretches while the College’s academic clock keeps running. A student handling both tracks at once can be timely on one and out of time on the other.

The grounds are narrower than most students expect

UF limits an appeal to three things: a lack of compliance with policies, inaccurate data, or new relevant information sufficient to alter the decision. There is no general ground of “the decision was wrong.” An appeal that simply re-argues the merits is answering a question the committee has not asked. The work is identifying a procedural departure, a factual error in the record, or genuinely new material — and saying which of the three you are invoking.

Winning the appeal is not the end of the matter

UF publishes this plainly, and it surprises people. A student whose dismissal is reversed on appeal is placed on probation for one year from the date of the appeal hearing, and will be automatically dismissed on any grade of D, E or unsatisfactory, or any unsatisfactory competency evaluation, in any course during that year. A reversal buys a probationary year with a hair trigger. Planning for that year should begin before the appeal is filed, not after it succeeds.

USMLE Step 1, repeat years and professionalism

Step 1. A petition to sit a third attempt goes to the ASC. Failure on the third attempt, or failure to pass within two years of completing Phase 1, results in dismissal. The two-year limb catches students who stop testing rather than fail, and it is the one most often missed.

Repeat years. As a general rule only one year may be repeated. An exception requires the votes of 80 per cent of the ASC’s voting members — a supermajority, not a simple one.

Professionalism. On a third instance the student must appear before the ASC “to address why they should not be dismissed.” That is a burden shift. The College does not first have to prove that dismissal is warranted; the student has to show it is not. Preparation for that meeting is a different exercise from defending an allegation.

Separately, UF reserves immediate dismissal for criminal acts, persistent substance abuse, blatant disregard for patient safety, or flagrant academic dishonesty.

Fitness-for-duty evaluations

The College may require one, the student chooses from a list it supplies, and the student pays. Non-compliance with the request is itself “cause for disciplinary action up to and including dismissal.” Declining the evaluation is therefore not a neutral option, and the scope of what the evaluator reports back is worth settling in writing before the appointment.

What standard of proof applies?

The College publishes none. Nothing in the medical education policies states a standard of proof for academic or professionalism decisions. The University’s conduct regulation does — “Preponderance of the Information,” meaning more likely than not — and adds that the University must present information that would not be inadmissible hearsay in a court of law. That gap between the two tracks is worth naming in any appeal that turns on what the committee actually relied on.

Can you bring a lawyer?

It depends entirely on which track you are in, and this is the single most consequential fact on this page.

In the academic process the handbook grants only an opening and closing statement and the right to take notes. It says nothing about an advisor. In the conduct process under Regulation 4.040 a student may have an Advisor — expressly defined to include a legal representative — who “may participate in all aspects of a Disciplinary Proceeding, but shall not testify.” The advisor’s identity must be disclosed at least two Class Days in advance with executed privacy waivers. A separate “Support Person” may not speak or present the case.

So the same conduct, characterized as an academic or professionalism deficiency, is heard in a room where counsel has no defined role; characterized as a code violation, it is heard in a room where counsel may participate fully. Establishing which process the College says it is running is the first question in any UF matter, not a later one.

“Final agency action” and what comes after

UF states that a reviewed appeal “will be final and will constitute final agency action.” That is deliberate language drawn from Florida’s Administrative Procedure Act, and it matters: it marks the point at which the internal process is exhausted and review by petition for writ of certiorari becomes available. Everything a court will later see is the record the College built. That is the practical reason to treat the internal appeal as the place to make the record rather than a formality to get past.

Where the governing documents are

Verified as loading on 3 September 2026:

• Medical Education Program Policies and Procedures (the “Complete Handbook”) — osa.med.ufl.edu
• Appeals process — osa.med.ufl.edu
• Probation and dismissal — osa.med.ufl.edu
• Academic Status Committee charge and membership — education.med.ufl.edu
• UF Regulation 4.040, student conduct — policy.ufl.edu

The handbook is distributed as a .docx that can be revised in place at the same address. Save a dated copy of the version that governed you the day the College acted, because that is the document your case turns on.

Related reading

• Medical school dismissal, remediation and promotion committees
• Professionalism and fitness-to-practice findings
• Academic dismissal and suspension
• Grade disputes and grade appeals
• University of Florida — student discipline overview

Other Florida health-professional programs

Every school writes its own dismissal, appeal and conduct rules, and the filing deadlines are rarely the same from one campus to the next. These pages set out the procedure at other Florida health-professional programs:

• University of Miami Miller School of Medicine — Dismissal & Appeals
• USF Morsani College of Medicine — Dismissal & Appeals
• Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine Melbourne
• FAU Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine — Dismissal & Appeals
• FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine — Dismissal & Appeals
• Florida Dental Schools — Dismissals & Appeals

Common questions

How long do I have to appeal a dismissal from UF College of Medicine?

Ten business days from the date on the decision letter. The clock runs from the letter’s date rather than from when you read it, so a letter that sits unopened for a week has already consumed most of the window.

Can I bring an attorney to the Academic Status Committee?

The College’s policies do not provide for one in the academic process. UF Regulation 4.040 does provide for a legal representative in the conduct process, who may participate but not testify, on two Class Days’ notice. Which rule applies depends on how the College has characterized the case.

What happens if my appeal succeeds?

You are placed on probation for one year from the date of the appeal hearing, and any D, E, unsatisfactory grade or unsatisfactory competency evaluation during that year results in automatic dismissal.

How many times can I fail USMLE Step 1 before dismissal?

A third failure results in dismissal, and so does failing to pass within two years of completing Phase 1 — whichever comes first.

Is a UF dismissal reviewable by a court?

The College treats a completed appeal as final agency action, which is the point at which review by petition for writ of certiorari becomes available. What a court reviews is the record made inside the College, which is why the internal appeal is where that record has to be built.