Assignment of Credits, Program Length and Tuition

An institution shall be able to equate its learning experiences with semester or quarter credit hours using practices common to institutions of higher education, to justify the lengths of its programs in comparison to similar programs found in accredited institutions of higher education, and to justify any program-specific tuition in terms of program costs, program length, and program objectives. Institutions shall notify HLC of any significant changes in the relationships among credits, program length, and tuition.

Assignment of Credit Hours. The institution’s assignment and award of credit hours shall conform to commonly accepted practices in higher education. Those institutions seeking, or participating in, Title IV federal financial aid, shall demonstrate that they have policies determining the credit hours awarded to courses and programs in keeping with commonly-accepted practices in higher education and with any federal definition of the credit hour, as may appear in federal regulations and that institutions also have procedures that result in an appropriate awarding of institutional credit in conformity with the policies established by the institution.

HLC Review. HLC shall review an institution’s compliance with this policy in conjunction with a comprehensive evaluation for Candidacy, Initial Accreditation or Reaffirmation of Accreditation during HLC’s assurance process. Institutions shall also produce evidence of compliance with this policy upon demand in accordance with HLC policy. HLC may sample or use other techniques to review selected institutional programs to ensure that it has reviewed the reliability and accuracy of the institution’s assignment of credit. HLC shall monitor, through its established monitoring processes, the resolution of any concerns related to an institution’s compliance with this policy as identified during that evaluation and shall require that an institution remedy any deficiency in this regard by a date certain but not to exceed two years from the date of the action identifying the deficiency.

HLC Action for Systemic Noncompliance. In addition to taking appropriate action related to the institution’s compliance with the Federal Compliance Requirements, HLC shall notify the Secretary of Education if, following any review process identified above or through any other mechanism, HLC finds systemic noncompliance with HLC’s policies in this section regarding the awarding of academic credit.

HLC shall understand systemic noncompliance to mean that an institution lacks policies to determine the appropriate awarding of academic credit or that there is an awarding by an institution of institutional credit across multiple programs or divisions or affecting significant numbers of students not in conformity with the policies established by the institution or with commonly accepted practices in higher education.

Policy History

Last Revised or Edited: November 2025, effective September 2026
First Adopted: February 1996, effective September 1996
History:* revised November 2011; revised June 2012 (policies combined, see note); renumbered November 2012 (former policy number 4.0(a)); revised June 2019 (effective September 2019); revised November 2020; edited February 2021; revised November 2025 (effective September 2026)
Notes: Policies combined June 2012: 3.10, 3.10(a), 3.10b), and 3.10(c).

* In the history, “revised” indicates that the HLC Board of Trustees adopted changes to the policy, and “edited” indicates that HLC staff made technical amendments or minor editorial revisions that did not require formal Board approval.