In education, a college’s or university’s requirement that a student must be enrolled in the institution for a specified number of years (generally one or two) before being eligible to receive a degree, a requirement waived in external degree programs. In a looser sense, the term residency requirement sometimes refers to a public college’s or university’s requirement that a student must have lived in the state for a specified period of time (often one year) to be eligible for the lower tuition offered to state residents.