Columns:: Maximum load: Provost discusses efforts to increase credit-hour production

since 12/15/98

Columns::April 22, 2002

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Maximum load
Provost discusses efforts to increase credit-hour production

By Sharron Hannon
shannon@uga.edu

Provost Karen Holbrook explains complications of the credit-hour question to Columns.

Columns: What are the concerns about credit-hour production?

Holbrook: Since the conversion to semesters in 1998, we’ve experienced a drop in credit-hour production. That’s due to decreasing credit hours for many courses and to the fact that a significant number of undergraduates are taking less than a 30-hour course load per year. That has both academic and financial implications for the students and for the university. With a portion of our funding tied to credit-hour production, we’re missing out on the additional dollars we would otherwise be generating from our increased enrollment if those students took full loads. At a time when we’re facing some serious budget cuts, we can ill afford this.
But beyond the budget impact, we have to address the kind of experience we want our students to have so they are challenged to reach their potential.

Columns: What’s causing the drop in credit-hour production?

Holbrook: It’s complicated. In February of 2000 I convened a small task force of faculty and administrators to evaluate the

Karen Holbrook

causes and devise remedies. I asked this group to determine why students take less than a regular course load and find out how we can help them progress through their educational plan in an efficient manner.
The task force came back with a detailed report in November 2000. They found a number of factors impacting course loads--only some of which we can do something about. With the conversion to semesters, where the average course weight is now three hours rather than five, students take advantage of the fact that 12 semester credit hours of course work qualifies as full-time status.
For some students, taking less than 30 hours per year means it takes them longer to graduate. But others can get away with lighter loads and still stay on track because they enter with advanced placement credits. Others manage to stay on track by satisfying some of their degree requirements by taking core courses at other system institutions during the summer. Sometimes this is a matter of convenience--they want to take a course close to home--and sometimes it’s because they’ve heard a UGA course is difficult and they think there’s a better likelihood of earning a higher grade at another school. UGA loses out on the credit hours students earn elsewhere.
The task force felt that the switch to semesters heightened students’ and parents’ concerns about difficult courses and course loads. Much of this has to do with wanting to keep the HOPE Scholarship. So we find students taking fewer courses to maintain the 3.0 GPA needed for continued eligibility for HOPE. Since students can keep the HOPE Scholarship for up to 127 hours--not including advanced placement credit--they’re less likely to feel pressure from parents to take full loads.
Some students may take less than 30 hours per year because they work part-time or because they can’t get the courses they need.

Columns: What can the university do to change the situation?

Holbrook: For starters, we shared the task force report and recommendations with the deans and asked them to come up with strategies to increase credit-hour production within their schools and colleges--things like creating more courses that carry more than three credit hours, providing more May term and summer classes, and offering courses at different times of the day, particularly after 4 p.m. But we have to do still more at the institutional level.
This semester, the deans, vice presidents and associate provosts have had serious discussions about how to enhance the involvement of our students in class work. The group went so far as to pass a resolution that, effective in fall 2002, all incoming freshmen and all transfer students--with appropriate exceptions--would be required to enroll for at least 15 hours of UGA course work during each academic semester in order to complete registration. Exceptions would include students with certified disabilities, non-traditional students, study-abroad students, students with special academic needs, or others as determined by deans.
A committee studied the impact of this recommendation and reported back on obstacles to implementing such a policy--and there are several significant ones, not the least of which is that the College of Arts and Sciences would need more instructional resources to provide enough seats for full enrollment. Dr. Adams and I agreed that before we can move forward with such a plan, we have to figure out ways to overcome the obstacles. And we need to involve faculty in addressing those.
I’d like to see a plan emerge through the faculty governance process first thing this fall. We need to really think creatively about how to engage students. With the caliber of our incoming students, we should be enticing them to get degrees in three years, to earn dual degrees, pursue double majors or enroll in 3/2 bachelor’s/master’s programs. We need to additionally figure out opportunities for really bright students to get into the university early and not waste their senior year in high school.
This isn’t an issue that’s only about money. We need to be considering the right things to do to fully engage the talented group of students we have at UGA and help them get the most of their educational experience here. But it becomes a catch-22 when we don’t have the resources to offer the kind of academic program they deserve because of budget hits from students taking less than full loads.

Columns: This is a complicated issue. But can steps be taken now?

Holbrook: For starters, we can communicate to incoming students that we expect them to take full course loads. In the next few weeks, we’ll send letters to accepted students and their parents calling on them to meet this goal. We can also have academic advisers stress options for those entering with AP credits. We want students to view a full course load as a measurement of their commitment, and of the university’s, to a high-quality education. To that end, we’re looking at initiating a voluntary contract in fall 2003 where first-year students agree to take at least 15 credit hours per semester and the university in turn commits to providing a selection of courses that enables them to progress to degrees within four years. Other universities offer such contracts and provide incentives to students who sign. We can do that--and also adopt disincentives for students who continue beyond the fourth year without good reasons. With our enrollment capped, those 5th-year seniors are occupying spaces that could be going to first-year students.

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