Course Policies

Attendance: Class attendance policies are determined by individual faculty members within University, college and department guidelines. The University's expectation is for students to attend all classes, and admission to the University obligates the student to observe these policies. If a student has excessive absences, University policy permits the teacher to assign a grade of "WF" for the course. A grade of "WF" may affect the student's status regarding University policies. If a student believes that unfair treatment was received from a teacher the student can follow the Academic Grievance Procedure.

Auditing: Students may register for courses on a non-credit basis. Since class seats are reserved for students enrolled for credit, students will not be allowed to enroll for audit until the first week of classes. Once a student enrolls for either credit or audit the status of the enrollment cannot be changed. In an audited course, no grade will be assigned. The fee for auditing a course is one-half tuition.  All students sitting in a class must be enrolled for credit or audit.

Bible Class Enrollment : Students who enroll in more than 8 hours in a semester or in Summer School (excluding Intersession) are required to take a Bible class that meets at least three hours a week.

Bible class attendance is compulsory regardless of the grade being earned. The required Bible class cannot be dropped. A student who has excessive absences in Bible will be placed on Bible Attendance Probation, will lose the privilege of priority registration, and will be required to sign a Bible attendance contract in the Office of the Provost prior to registering for the next semester. (Students who have already registered will not be able to register during the next priority registration.) A student who has excessive absences in Bible in more than one semester will be suspended from the University at least a minimum of one term.

Bible Class Exemptions: Exemptions are limited to students who have passed two Bible courses at HUG or HIZ, students in the supervised teaching semester or field study and students passing eight semesters of Bible and have fulfilled Graduation Requirements  . Post baccalaureate students who have met the graduation requirement are not required to take additional hours of Bible.

 Bible Course Substitutes for Juniors and Seniors: The following courses may be taken as substitutes for required Bible courses by juniors and seniors who have already satisfied the 8-hour Liberal Arts requirement in textual Bible: Upper-level textual Greek and Hebrew courses, missions courses and philosophy courses. The following courses are substituttes for specific majors only: BUS 435 , COMM 401 , NURS 413  and PHS 410 .

Classification:

Concurrent Enrollment: Upon enrollment at Harding University, students are generally expected to do their coursework at Harding. However, if a student wishes to take a course at another accredited college or university during a semester that he or she is enrolled at Harding — known as concurrent enrollment — the student must petition to receive credit prior to enrolling in the course. Concurrent enrollment includes such courses as resident courses, online courses or correspondence courses. A form for pre-approval is available in the Registrar’s Office or it may be requested online. The student should also consult with his/her adviser.

While living in University housing, no freshman or sophomore student may be concurrently enrolled at another university through online, correspondence or on-site courses.

Hours of credit taken concurrently at another institution will be included in determining the maximum load permitted for fall and spring semesters, and the application of the policies regarding Bible class enrollment, attending chapel or living on campus. The hours will be added to the semester in which the course begins.

Courses from other institutions taken concurrently will not count as hours enrolled for financial aid eligibility.

Course Numbering: Normally, courses numbered 100-199 are for freshmen; 200-299 for sophomores; 300-399 for juniors; and 400-499 for seniors.

Courses numbered 250-299 completed at Harding by second-semester sophomores, juniors and seniors count as upper-level credit. First-semester sophomores may receive upper-level credit in these courses provided they are preceded by a year of freshman credit in the same subject. All 300 and 400 courses are upper-level.

Courses numbered 300 or above are not open to freshmen. Courses numbered 300-399 are primarily for juniors and seniors, but sophomores may enroll in these courses with the consent of the instructor and the department chair or dean. Courses numbered 400-449 are open only to juniors and seniors; courses numbered 450-499 are open only to seniors.

Examinations: Students are expected to take all scheduled examinations. Course policies for making up examinations will apply. If the student misses an examination because of illness confirmed by the school nurse or a family physician, participation in a school-sponsored activity, or other cause sanctioned by the provost, they may make up that examination. Procedures for making up examinations differ from teacher to teacher, and these are subject to the approval of the provost. Teachers are under no obligation to give make-up examinations for unexcused absences.

Final Examinations: Final examinations in lecture classes may not be taken before final examination week (labs, kinesiology activity and 600-level and above classes are exceptions). Exams may be changed within that week, subject to the approval of the teacher. The change of exam form may be found on the homepage of Pipeline in the Quick Links menu. A change of examination fee, listed in the Special Fees  section, is charged except for confirmed illness and official school representation.

Full/Part time Status: Students enrolled in 12 or more hours per semester are classified as full-time students. Those enrolled in fewer than 12 hours per semester are classified as part-time students. However, part-time students who enroll in more than 8 hours per semester are subject to Bible-course and chapel-attendance policies.

Graduate Credit: Students who are within 9 hours of the baccalaureate degree may enroll for graduate courses if approved in advance by the director of graduate studies or dean. Credit in graduate courses cannot be applied toward meeting baccalaureate degree requirements. Graduate hours cannot be used in determining financial aid.

International Students: International students are required to take HIST 101  or HIST 102  and POLS 205  to fulfill University requirements. The liberal arts global literacy requirement is waived for all international students. Important information may also be found in the International Student Handbook.

Leveling Work: Leveling work may be needed in order to meet the prerequisites for more advanced courses or to remediate under-prepared students. For example, students whose ACT English subscore is 18 and below or whose SAT verbal score is 440 and below must enroll in ENG 100  before taking ENG 111 . ENG 100  is then considered to be leveling work. Remedial courses used for leveling do not count toward graduation; other leveling work may decrease the number of elective and/or increase the number of hours in a degree.

Majors and Minors: Every degree program requires a major, which should be chosen as early as possible. Majors typically include 30 to 60 hours, although some are larger. Majors with fewer than 48 hours typically require a minor of 18 hours from another field. Within these majors 18 hours must be upper-level, and 6 hours of the minor must be upper-level.

Broad-area majors consist of 48 or more hours, 24 of which must be upper-level. A minor is not required.

Within the major department, only 12 hours beyond the minimum hours required for the major may count toward the 128 required for graduation.

While minors typically consist of 18 hours, a few require more. Hours in the minor may be reduced by courses in Liberal Arts and Bible, which also count toward the minor. Thus, while the degree programs in this Catalog stipulate 18 hours, this number varies. A course used in a student’s major cannot be used in the minor.

Majors – Double: Students pursuing two majors in a single department, where a common core of course requirements exists, must, in addition to completing the requirements for both majors, complete 15 hours beyond the major with the most required hours. No minor is required for double majors.

Students earning two baccalaureate degrees at the same graduation must earn at least 160 hours. Two identical degrees (for example, two B.A.s or two B.B.A.s) may not be awarded at the same commencement.

Majors – Special: Students who choose a vocation for which there is no cataloged major in many cases may arrange a program of study through the provost and appropriate department chair.

Maximum Credit Load: The normal course load is 16 hours per semester. Many first-semester freshmen, however, should limit loads to 14 or 15 hours. The maximum load for a freshman is 18 hours. Sophomores whose cumulative grade point average is 3.0 or who have earned a 3.0 the previous semester may carry up to 19 hours of credit. Juniors and seniors whose cumulative grade point average is 3.0 or who have earned a 3.0 the previous semester may carry up to 20 hours of credit. A senior in the last two semesters prior to graduation may be permitted to enroll in up to 21 hours in order to graduate without extending their enrollment another term. Under no circumstances may a student enroll in more than 21 hours of credit, including hours earned through concurrent enrollment.

The maximum academic course load is four semester hours for Intersession and eight hours for each session of summer school, for a possible maximum of 20 credit hours.  A student must meet the grade point average standards in order to enroll in more than 18 hours. Entering freshmen are advised to limit their class load to six hours for each session.

Eligible students must complete the required form found on the Student tab in Pipeline in order to enroll in more than 18 hours. 

Post-Baccalaureate Students: Students who have completed one bachelor’s degree will be considered post baccalaureates until admitted into a graduate program. Students enrolling at Harding to obtain a second bachelor’s degree are required to meet all graduation requirements, including the 8-hour textual Bible requirement. They are required to take a Bible course that meets at least three hours a week in semesters in which they are enrolled for more than 8 hours unless the graduation requirement for Bible has been met. Cumulative hours must total at least 160 hours.

Remedial Courses: Students, who are under-prepared, based on standardized test scores, may be required to enroll in remedial courses. The Advance Program  and ESL Program  offer remedial courses to prepare students for entry into college-level courses, and do not count toward graduation or total hours completed.

Repeat Courses: A student may repeat any course previously taken. The highest grade will be counted in the GPA. Students may not raise their grade point average by repeating a course and then withdrawing. The previous grade will remain on the transcript.

Summer School Enrollment at Another Institution: Any undergraduate summer school course that a current student plans to take at another accredited college or university and then transfer to Harding must be pre-approved by the registrar before the student enrolls in the course. The maximum credit load policy will be enforced. The required forms are found on the Student tab in Pipeline.

Transfer Students: Students who transfer from a regionally accredited institution within the United States will have credits evaluated on a course-by-course basis, and approved courses will be transferred as equivalents to Harding courses or as elective credit. To assist in understanding transfer credit, students may visit the site www.harding.edu/registrar and click on Course Equivalency. Follow the instructions in locating the transfer institution and accepted credit from that school. For colleges not in this database, contact the registrar for information.

Students whose credits were accepted as elective may submit a course description for each course to the registrar for review. In some areas of study, the course description may be submitted to the chair of the department for review.

Students who transfer from a non-regionally accredited institution within the United States will have credits evaluated based upon course descriptions and in some cases may be required to have credit validated by the chair of the department of the course in question. Validation of a course may require an examination by the student.

Transfer credit counts as upper-level credit only if the course has junior-senior status at the institution where taken. All work transferred from a junior college is considered lower-level except for 300-level courses taken in an approved third-year program.

A transfer student is required to have at least a 2.0 cumulative GPA on all previous course work attempted at previous institutions. Students admitted with less than a 2.0 cumulative GPA will be placed on academic warning or probation, which may result in academic suspension if the student does not complete the semester at Harding with a 2.00 GPA.

Students certifying to teach must still meet all Arkansas certification requirements. In some instances upper-level courses may substitute for lower-level courses for students who did not graduate with an associate degree.

Transfer-Associate Degree: Students who have graduated with an A.A. or A.S. degree from a junior or community college may satisfy Harding's Liberal Arts requirements if the following courses have been completed:
   Bible (textual) - 8 hours; Speech - 3 hours; art, music or theatre appreciation - 3 hours; Natural science - 6 hours; Mathematics - 3 hours; Social science (must include 6 hours of American and/or world history) - 12 hours; Kinesiology activity - 3 hours; and English composition and literature - 9 hours.

Students certifying to teach must still meet all Arkansas certification requirements. In some instances upper-level courses may substitute for lower-level courses for students who did not graduate with an associate degree.

Transfers – International Students: International students or any student who transfers from an institution from outside of the United States should submit an official transcript, including certified English translated copies. Students should be aware that these documents may be submitted to a third-party credential service by Harding for an official evaluation. This process may take up to three months. The student will be charged for this service. Courses completed at an overseas college will be evaluated on an individual basis and course descriptions will be required. Students should be aware that some courses may require validation by examination. Important information may also be found in the International Student Handbook.