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The Academic Year
The College academic year is divided into semesters. It consists of two main semesters (Fall and Spring) of 15 weeks duration, and two shorter, more intensive, Summer sessions. Each semester or session commences by students registering for a number of courses and ends with the examination weeks covering all of these courses.
New students may start in September– October, January–February, June and July.
The academic calendar provides information detailing important dates in the academic year, such as when semesters begin and end, registration periods, examination weeks and holidays.
Academic Programs, Majors, Courses and Credits
Each student is enrolled in a program of study such as Aesthetics and Beauty Therapy or Culinary Arts such programmes of study are referred to as majors. Each program consists of different courses which must be completed in order for a student to graduate. Academic program lead to an academic qualification. In order to graduate from such a programme a minimum number of credits must be completed. Credits normally represent hours of instruction. Each course normally carries 3-6 credits/6-12 ECTS (European Credit Transfer System), which usually means 3-4 hours (50 minutes each) of lectures per week for a semester (13 weeks). The credits students earn must conform to a specific pattern of distribution. This means that, in addition to their major requirements (i.e. the specialized courses that constitute the backbone of their programme), students are also required
to earn credits from different groups of courses, such as: Written Expression, Computer Requirements, Liberal Arts, Social Sciences etc. These groups of courses from which credits must be earned are specified by the student’s programme of study and appear on his/her academic pathway.
The academic pathway – or sequence of courses each student must take each semester – is determined by the student’s degree requirements. This sequence is also determined by prerequisites (i.e. it may only be possible to take one course after other courses have been successfully completed).
Semester Course Load and Sequence of Courses
The normal semester course load for regular full-time students is 15-18 credits/30-36 ECTS. Only students with a CPA of at least
3.3 may be normally permitted to exceed 18 credits/36 ECTS. Other students may be allowed to register for more than 18 credits/36 ECTS in exceptional cases (e.g. if they are repeating at least one course, which they had previously passed but are retaking in order to raise their grade, or if they require a few extra credit hours during the last semester in order to graduate).
Students on special Academic Admission may not register for more than 12 credits/24 ECTS.
Classification of Students
Student classification as freshman, sophomore, junior or senior depends upon the number of credits/ECTS successfully completed.
Student designations are as follows:
-Freshman: 0-25 credits/0-50 ECTS -Sophomore: 26-55 credits/51-110 ECTS -Junior: 56-85 credits/111-170 ECTS -Senior: 86 or more credits/171 or more
ECTS -Graduate: Student pursuing a graduate degree
Students are classified further according to the number of semester hours in which they are enrolled per semester. An undergraduate student is considered a full-time student if enrolled for at least 12 hours during a regular semester or 6 hours during the summer session. Enrolment for fewer hours is considered part-time.
A graduate student is considered full-time if he or she is enrolled in 9 credits/18 ECTS during a regular semester or 4 credits/8 ECTS during the summer session.
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