Section 3 - Credit Hours

Revised: 04-20-2026

3.1 – Credit Hour Policy

Departments are strongly urged to offer three-credit-hour courses, especially when these are taken by significant numbers of students from other fields. It is understood that some courses, such as laboratory courses and lower division mathematics courses, will be offered for more than three credits.

Courses and programs will be measured in whole numbers of credit hours to align with UBHE credit transfer policy (USHE R474 - 4.6).

Monitoring the allocation of credit hours for a regular course and laboratory work will be the responsibility of the University Curriculum Committee. Each academic department will monitor the allocation of hours for internships, practica, studio work, and other academic work leading to the award of credit.

3.2 – Credit Hours

A credit hour is an institutionally established unit that represents the amount of work 
verified by evidence of student achievement. 

One credit hour is an institutionally-established equivalency that reasonably approximates:

  • At least one hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction each week (including 10 minutes for movement between classes), and
  • At least two hours of out-of-class student work each week

over for approximately fourteen weeks in for one semester or trimester. Equivalent amounts of student work may also be earned through other academic activities work leading to the award of credit hours, such as laboratory work, internships, practica, studio work, or other forms of supervised academic work. These activities must require a comparable amount of student work.

For online courses, per credit hour, instructional materials and activities should require approximately one hour of direct instructional engagement per week and an additional two hours of student work per week, resulting in a comparable total amount of student work to that expected in face-to-face courses. ( NWCCU “ Policy on Distance Education and Correspondence ”).

3.3 – Credit Ratios

Academic credit is a measure of the total time commitment required of a typical student in a particular course of study.

Total time consists of three components: (1) instructional time - which may be face-to-face, online, or a combination of the two; (2) time spent in laboratory, studio, fieldwork, or other scheduled activity; (3) time devoted to reading, studying, problem solving, writing, or preparation.

One full- semester credit hour is assigned in the following ratio of component hours per week devoted to the course of study: (1) lecture courses (which include face-to-face, online and hybrid) – at least one contact hour or equivalent instructional time for each credit hour (PPM 4.6); (2) laboratory or studio course – at least two contact hours for each credit hour; (3) independent study - at least three hours of work per week for each credit hour.