Credit Hour Allocation

All semester / credit hours awarded by Helene Fuld College of Nursing conform to the federal and state definitions. These guidelines are also in compliance with policies set forth by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE).

The faculty and program administrators are responsible for developing, maintaining and evaluating the curriculum within an academic program. Assignment of credit hours for courses are determined within the program based on faculty expertise and course learning objectives. All courses will be reviewed periodically (annually) by the Curriculum Committee and this review includes examination of allocated credit hours. Courses will adhere to the following breakdown of credit hour allocation.

For the quarter system (no longer offered after April 2022), instructional time consists of 1 75-minute session for each quarter credit. For a 3 quarter credit course this would be 3 75-minute sessions per week for 10 weeks. This would calculate to 3.75 clock hours and with a 15 minute break the course would be scheduled for a 4 hour block.

For the semester system instructional time consists of 1 50-minute session for each semester credit. For a 3-semester credit course this would be 3 50-minute sessions per week for 15 weeks. This would calculate to 2.5 clock hours and with a break, the course would be scheduled for a 2.75 hour block.

All courses listed in the college catalog and on-line have credit allocation and distribution to lecture, lab and clinical.

Additional Information

Lab hours are calculated using a factor of “2” for every semester credit allocated. For a 3-semester credit course with lab, 2 semester credits may be allocated for theory and 1 semester credit for lab. To receive the 3 semester credits for a lab course with 2 credits toward theory and 1 credit toward lab the student must complete a 100 minute session each week for theory (2 50-min sessions) AND a 100-minute session each week for lab (1 credit x “2”=2 50-minute sessions per lab credit or 100-minute session) for fifteen weeks for a total of 15 sessions (15 sessions 100-minutes each for theory and 15 sessions 100-minutes each for lab).
For clinical credits we have added a factor of “3” to calculate expected clinical hours associated with each clinical course. An example would be 2 clinical credits = 2 credits X 3 hours=6 hours: 6 clinical hours X15 weeks per term= 90 clinical hours. We will spread clinical hours over 13 weeks for 7 hours each week x 13 weeks to arrive at required 90 clinical hours.
Students are expected to complete 2 hours of outside study for every class session or twice the in-class time.