Credit Hours

Assignment of Credit Hours

The CUNY School of Professional Studies (CUNY SPS) has policies and procedures in place to determine the number of credit hours awarded for all credit-bearing courses and programs. All courses and credit assignments are reviewed and approved by program faculty, the School Curriculum Committee, the Governing Council, the CUNY Board of Trustees, and the New York State Education Department so as to ensure that the credit hours awarded are aligned with policy and that the student learning outcomes and course requirements accurately reflect the amount of credit to be awarded for each course. In those cases in which courses are part of a degree program, credit hour assignments for the courses are specified in the program proposal.

Such policies and procedures comply with commonly accepted practice in higher education as well as CUNY policies and regulations which adhere to all guidelines of the New York State Education Department, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, and the United States Department of Education. (For details see the memo of the University Registrar on Credit Hour Guidelines.) The college’s policies and procedures apply to courses in all delivery formats (online, face-to-face, or hybrid) and in all time frames (not only the 15-week traditional semester but the 10-week and 7-week summer sessions as well as the 3-week session used in the winter intersession and the summer).

Information on the number of credit hours and the dates, time, term, and delivery format for each course is published online through the course schedule and is publicly accessible prior to student registration.

Changes to the course’s credit hour assignment must be approved through the institutional curriculum process, proceeding from the program faculty to the School Curriculum Committee, the Governing Council and on to the CUNY Board of Trustees.