This essay identifies six common institutional barriers to student completion and offers recommendations to remove them. The barriers are: (a) confusing degree requirements, (b) courses not available when needed, (c) unnecessary registration holds, (d) course credits of transfer students not counted toward degree, (e) financial aid policies that…

Because federal financial aid guidelines stipulate that students must be enrolled in a minimum of 12 credits per semester in order to receive the full amount of aid, many colleges and universities define full-time enrollment as 12 credits per semester. Yet, if a student takes only 12 credits each fall and spring term, it is impossible to complete…

The success of America's economy depends on a dramatic increase in the number and diversity of people who complete college with a high-quality credential. To meet this goal, the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) is leading a national effort to increase support for students who left higher education without a degree but are eligible…

After nearly three years of planning, Ohio's higher-education officials are finalizing an ambitious program to grant college credit for some technical courses offered at the state's adult-education centers. The program, called the Career-Technical Credit Transfer, is the latest in a string of state efforts to more closely link work-force training…

Describes the course-credit system in the United States, the standard means of measuring academic work. Discusses how the system is a means of measuring the time spent on study and not the quality of work; since the 19th century, the course-credit system has been the major "currency" in American higher education and has proven quite…

As location becomes less relevant to education choices, the need for a more comprehensive credit articulation policy increases. The Southern Regional Education Board's (SREB) Distance Learning Policy Laboratory is working to develop a plan that would facilitate credit articulation among the SREB's 16 states. Discussion includes challenges and…

The 1994 Florida State Legislature directed the Postsecondary Education Planning Commission to conduct a review of selected Associate in Science (A.S.) community college programs to determine the effect of program length on student completion rates, licensure passing rates, job placements, average earnings, and performance in further postsecondary…

Discusses the definition of the academic credit hour and its relationship to current social, political, and educational changes. Today, nontraditional delivery systems affect the way credit is offered and received. Faculty must consider how these changes affect what graduates know. Definition and validity of the credit hour is the key to the…

Background information on University of Denver's computerized degree check and advising system, the Academic Progress Report (APR), is presented. The APR program, which was implemented for undergraduates in fall 1976, is discussed in terms of the need for the program, its development, implementation, problems, and future directions. The system…

The objective of this work is to provide transfer students with a pathway that will prepare them in the same manner as direct entry students for a specific major at any public baccalaureate institution in the state, and for any of the independent institutions that wish to join the agreement. Wherever possible, the work groups were encouraged to…

States that as a new institution, Klamath Mission Community College in Oregon (KCC) sought to develop an academically sound and conceptually viable curriculum in the context of emerging societal and workforce needs by examining issues of mission, service area, basic skills requirements, academic credit hours, degree programs, non-credit courses,…

Provides an overview of developments in higher education internationalization, from traditional forms such as student/staff mobility to exporting via branch campuses, transnational university networks, and virtual delivery. Discusses quality challenges, particularly recognition of foreign degrees and credits. Suggests the solution is integration…

The Regents External Degrees program to earn a degree without attending college, and the College Proficiency Examinations to validate knowledge gained outside of the formal college classroom are described. The programs are administered by the University of the State of New York, which has no campus or courses, but accepts credits from accredited…

The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools reports on the Task Force on Baccalaureate Education in the Community College Setting. This particular report is in response to a 1998 request from a community college to have its accreditation extended to a few competency-based programs leading to a Bachelor…

In May 1985 and again in September 1986, the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges adopted Title 5 regulations strengthening the associate degree by establishing two distinct sets of standards which establish whether or not individual courses may be applied for credit to the associate degree. Along with a brief history of the…