Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Education and Labor Committee held a hearing to examine how regional accrediting agencies assess the quality of higher education programs.

At issue was the definition of a credit hour and the perception that agencies are setting too lax a standard on the amount of time students spend on course work to earn academic credit. The Committee discussed whether requiring a minimum definition of a credit hour and/or program length would help prevent institutions from inflating credit hours to reap more tuition and state aid dollars.

The issue of “credit hour” definition initially emerged in audits conducted by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General of three accrediting agencies. In a May report, the Inspector General argued that a regional accrediting agency was not being strict enough when assessing the amount of credit awarded in a course offered by one institution.

The Chairman of the Committee, Rep. George Miller (D-CA) stated, “I am particularly concerned about institutions inflating credit hours in order to garner more student aid than is justified.”

The ranking Republican on the Committee, Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY), agreed with Miller with regard to the need to ensure institutions are fulfilling their missions, but expressed concerns about the federal government dictating what constitutes a quality institution of higher education.

The proposed rules being considered by the U.S. Department of Education would define a credit hour as “one hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction and a minimum of two hours of out of class student work each week for approximately 15 weeks for one semester or trimester hour of credit”.

The proposed rules also includes an exception to the definition of a credit hour. The exception defines credit hour as “institutionally established reasonable equivalencies for the amount of work required in [the previous definition] for the credit hours awarded, including as represented in intended learning outcomes and verified by evidence of student achievement.”

If the proposed rules regarding credit hour are put in place,  the U.S. Department of Education publicly stated it would closely watch the implementation of the rule and evaluate whether the definition of a credit hour is effective in protecting students and taxpayers.