One semester hour of credit represents 15 class meetings of 50 minutes each for traditional semester length courses (15 weeks). In science laboratory courses, one credit is awarded for two and one half hours of laboratory per week.
The University also offers a variety of online learning experiences:
- eCourse: If classroom time is reduced by more than 50% and the differential is made up online it becomes an eCourse (i.e. face time is less than 19 hours).
- Hybrid: If classroom time is reduced any portion up to 50% and the differential is made up online it is a Hybrid, (i.e. 8 week courses meeting 4 hours a week, (32 hrs) and the 5.5 hours is made up online it is a hybrid).
- eCompanion: All contact hours are face-to-face for the 37.5 hours.
Enrollment status is defined by course loads as follows:
- Full-time student: 12 or more credits per semester
- Half-time student: 6-11 credits per semester
- Part-time student: 1-5 credits per semester
The only exception is students in their final semester before graduation who need fewer than 12 credits to graduate, and who normally have carried 12 or more credits per semester, may be considered full-time for their final semester.
Students with outstanding academic records who wish to register for more than 18 credits in a semester must obtain permission of the School Dean and the Vice President for Academic Affairs.
Felician University offers many non-traditional programs, primarily for adult students, which are typically in 8 week terms. The policy dictating full-time or part-time status for these programs with special term structures will be prorated based on the semester policy.
The semester policy for undergraduate students states the student must be enrolled for 24 credits, divided equally between the semesters, during the academic year. The same policy will be applied for programs with a special term structure; these students must be enrolled for a minimum of 24 credits during the course of the academic year (generally August 15 to August 15 of each calendar year).
The disbursement of these 24 credits must be spread across the term structures equally for a student to be in full-time status.
For example an 8 week term structures which generally have five or six terms per academic year, the student must be enrolled in at least 4 credits per term to maintain full-time status (24/6).
To determine half-time and part-time status, the same logic will be applied, using the number of credits from the traditional semester enrollment as a base and dividing it between the number of terms offered for that program structure during the academic year.