As a general standard, one semester credit hour is to represent 45 hours of student involvement. One semester credit hour equals one hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction and a minimum of two hours of out-of-class student work each week for approximately fifteen weeks. In the fall and spring semesters the portion of this involvement that is dedicated to recitation or lecture is established as 55 minutes in length per week over 14 weeks. In summer sessions and in other time-shortened arrangements an equivalent of this dedication is required exclusive of registration and final examination periods.
Curriculum committees in each college or school and the University Curriculum and Academic Regulations Committee provide periodic compliance reviews for new and existing programs to evaluate the application of its policy on credit hour across the institution to assure that credit hour assignments are accurate and reliable. Departments are responsible for submitting new course approval requests that include a detailed description of how credit value is justified. All syllabi are retained in the respective academic units.