Credit Hours

Credit hours refers to the units or credits earned by a student for the successful completion of a course at CGU. These are the units recorded on the student’s official transcript and the same units that are counted toward degree requirements or qualifications for certificates.

The standard for credit hours is set by federal regulations governing eligibility for and the disbursement of financial aid. 34 CFR Section 668.2 refers to 12 semester hours for institutions that measure progress in credit hours and use a standard semester term. Standards are essentially the same for graduate and undergraduate education since the two are differentiated by the level of study and not the number of hours devoted to study.

For CGU courses, a single unit or credit is determined by 10.5 hours of instructional activity per semester.  Instructional activity includes direct instructor contact in a physical or virtual classroom as well as asynchronous instructional content for online or hybrid courses. When creating and scheduling courses, departments and programs must be careful to ensure that scheduled class meeting times meet or exceed the following requirements based upon the 10.5 hours per unit rule. A standard semester at CGU is 16 weeks in the Fall and Spring.

Units HoursMinutes

1.0  –  10.5  –     630
2.0  –  21.0  –  1,260
3.0  –  31.5  –  1,890
4.0  –  42.0  –  2,520

Note that departments and programs that follow the schedule of standard meeting times established and published in the Call for Courses meet the requirements of the institution’s definition of credit hours.

Attendance Policy

Students are expected to attend all scheduled class meetings for courses in which they are enrolled whether on a credit or audit basis. Students should consult their department handbooks as well as their course syllabi for attendance policies specific to certain courses or programs.  Normally, in the case of excused class absences, the instructor may but is not obligated to allow students to complete examinations, missed assignments, or additional make-up work to offset absences.

In cases of excessive absences which affect a student’s ability to effectively master the course material or meet the university’s stated credit hour requirement standards, instructors may take appropriate action, including but not limited to adjusting a student’s grade for the course or dropping the student from the course according to the published Academic Calendar deadlines.

Students with special attendance requests, such as major religious holiday observances, or unforeseen life emergencies, such as serious illness or accidents, are usually allowed to make up class assignments or tests.  Students are expected, when possible, to inform the instructor in advance of an absence and to make arrangements for missed work.

Auditing Your Program Offerings

Run the PeopleSoft query SR_CLASS_CREDIT_HOURS and compare the Total Minutes calculated by the report to the Units Earned column. Comparisons should meet or exceed the totals illustrated in the table above.

Some cautionary notes about the results delivered by the PeopleSoft report.

  • Sections that have multiple meeting schedules are not displayed as a single occurrance on the report. You must total up the minutes reported for each meeting cycle to determine the total number of minutes for the course.
  • Courses that are classified as practica, internships, independent study, and other non-classroom activities may or may not yield complete meeting time results.

It is important that for all courses that do not meet the required minimum meeting times, the offering department or program must have a reasonable rationale to justify the awarding of the indicated credits. Such reasons may include the expectation of a minimum number of hours of individual research, internship, or other activity.