Measuring academic progress: the course–credit system in American higher education

Abstract

The course–credit system in the United States is the standard means of measuring academic work. Typically, an academic degree is the sum of required and other courses measured by the course credit system. Generally, each course consists of 3 credits (the meaning of each credit is one hour of in-class or laboratory work over a 16 week semester). The system is a means of measuring the time spent on study and not the quality of the work. Since the 19th century, the course–credit system has been the major “currency” in American higher education.