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Credit Point and Student Workload Policy

This is not a current document. It has been repealed and is no longer in force.

Section 1 - Overview

(1) This policy provides the basis for the allocation of credit-point values to units and the associated student workload hours assumed within a unit. This policy dates from the 1997 Uniform Credit Point Policy that standardised all UNE undergraduate courses as having 48 credit points as the normal annual full-time study load typically comprising eight 6 credit-point units or multiples of six, such as two 24 credit-point units. Since 1997, this policy has also been applied to coursework postgraduate courses and those higher degrees by research that are structured on a credit-point basis.

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Section 2 - Scope

(2) This policy applies to all UNE undergraduate units excepting practicum, praxis and equivalent units, and units used for the recording of research study of PhD students.

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Section 3 - Policy

(3) The following will apply:

  1. A standard unit in an undergraduate course shall consist of six credit points.
  2. Credit points shall be related to student workload.
  3. One credit point is approximately equal to twenty-five (25) hours of total student workload.
  4. It is recognised that the split between staff contact hours and study time shall differ from discipline to discipline.
  5. All undergraduate degrees will be structured on the basis of 48 credit points comprising the full time workload for each year of study (giving a total of 144 credit points for a three-year degree, 192 credit points for four-year degrees and 240 credit points for five-year degrees).
  6. These principles do not preclude logical division (modularisation) or multiples of units where appropriate.
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Section 4 - Definitions

(4) A credit point is an indicator of the amount of work required in a unit and represents a workload of approximately twenty-five hours per teaching period. This means that a six credit-point unit, for example, is estimated to require a total workload of approximately 150 hours.