Policy Statement

Augusta University (“AU”) aims to ensure students a predictable schedule and effectively use its physical resources to meet the pedagogical needs of its academic programs. Classroom priority will be given to courses that follow the standard meeting times. If a course needs to meet off schedule, then a Request for Standard Course Meeting Time Variance Form must be submitted each term for the course; the form must be approved by the Dean of each college and the Vice President for Academic and Faculty Affairs (VPAFA) before being submitted with a department’s class schedule. Further, courses may not be scheduled with alternating meeting times (sometimes known as leapfrogging). For example, two courses may not be listed within the same time block in a term that both start on Monday and meet on alternating Mondays. 

Limited and restricted admissions programs may request an ongoing variance to this policy through the Vice President for Academic and Faculty Affairs and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost. 

This policy does not apply to the Dental College of Georgia and Medical College of Georgia. 

Affected stakeholders

All entities and persons within the Enterprise that are affected by this policy:
Faculty, Graduate Students, Staff, Undergraduate Students

Policy Owner

Office of Academic and Faculty Affairs

Definitions

Off Schedule: A course time period that is not included as part of the standard meeting times. Limited Admissions Program: A program that has standards that must be met before a student is considered eligible to declare that program as a major. 

Restricted Admissions Program: A program that is restricted to a certain number of students who can be admitted to the program. 

Process & procedures

The table below outlines the standard start times and course periods for three (3) credit hour courses offered Monday through Friday. Courses with four (4) credit hours may cross two standard course periods but must begin at a standard start time and end at the appropriate period. For example, a course may meet from 8:00AM to 9:50AM on Monday. One (1) credit hour courses, excluding laboratories, must begin at the designated start time and be taught starting at 2:00PM on M/W/F or anytime on T/TH. 

Standard Meeting Times

Day Time Courses   

Night Time Courses 

Graduate Courses 

Graduate courses which meet once a week have flexibility in their start times to meet the individual needs of their student population as long as the starting time is no earlier than 4:30PM Monday through Friday. 

Weekend Courses 

No standardized course times will be set for weekend courses. 

The policy and process is not applicable to courses that do not have standard meeting times such as independent study. For programs that enroll students in a cohort model for which all students are taking a prescribed, integrated block of common courses that constitute their semester load, programs must make every effort to manage optimized classroom utilization. 

References & supporting documents

Request for Standard Course Meeting Time Variance Form 

Related policies

Definition of a Credit Hour Policy 

Approved by

President, Augusta University and CEO, AU Health System Date: June 27, 2017
Last Revision: June 5, 2017 Last Review: June 27, 2017