Clock to Credit Hour Regulations
The federal regulations information regarding reduction of payable financial aid credit hours if you are admitted to one of the following programs of study is listed below. These programs do not lead to an Associate Degree; therefore, according to federal regulations, institutions must complete a clock to credit hour conversion when awarding federal financial aid (Federal Financial Aid includes Pell Grants, FSEOG, Federal Direct Student Loans, and Federal Work-Study).
Programs falling under Clock to Credit
Only the financial aid of those in italic or bold are affected.
- Agricultural Power & Equipment Technician
- Auto Collision Repair & Refinish Technician
- Automotive Technician
- Building Trades—Carpentry
- CNC
- Cosmetology
- Criminal Justice - 720 Academy
- Dental Assistant **
- Electrical Power Distribution
- Farm Operations & Management - Dairy *
- Farm Operations & Management - Dairy Technician *
- Farm Operations & Management - Farm Ag Maintenance *
- Farm Operations & Management - Livestock *
- Farm Operations & Management - Livestock Tech *
- Medical Assistant **
- Welding
* Impacted programs
** Only impacted for part-time students
The Department of Education has made changes to the Clock to Credit Conversion Requirements. The final regulations effective as of July 1, 2021 continues to require programs that do not lead to an Associate’s Degree to use the clock-to-credit hour conversion formula.
The formula will determine if, after the conversion, the program includes the minimum number of credit hours to qualify as an eligible program for Federal Student Aid purposes. The formula also determines the number of Title IV credit hours associated with each class that an institution can use to determine a student’s enrollment status during the program.
Previously, the conversion formula for determining the number of credit hours in an educational program required an institution to use a ratio of 37.5 in-class clock hours to each semester credit hour, except the institution could include out-of-class hours as long as the in-class hours met a lower ration – 30 clock hours to one semester hour.
Under the new regulations, there is no longer any consideration of out-of-class hours for purposes of the clock-to-credit conversion. Therefore, the revised formula for determining the number of credit hours in each class of an educational program is a semester hour must include at least 30 in-class hours of instruction. This determination is made by dividing the total number of clock hours in a course by 30. The result is the new total credit hours for the course in which financial aid will be paid. This total will be used when calculating financial aid awards.
Example: If you are enrolled in a 3 credit hour course that has 75 clock hours, we would divide 30 into the 75 clock hours (75/30 = 2.5). You would end up being eligible for only 2.5 financial aid credit hours.
We hope this information is helpful to you as you begin your enrollment at Southwest Tech. You may contact the Business Office at 608.822.2660, if you have additional questions.