Florida students penalized for taking “too many credits”

University of Nebraska-Lincoln officials think students should be allowed to take extra courses if they want when completing their bachelor's degrees – unlike Florida state universities.

At the start of the 2009-2010 school year, the Florida state university system announced all incoming students who graduated with 120 percent of the total credit hours needed for a bachelor's degree would be required to pay a fine of 50 percent of the cost of each extra credit earned.

In an article published by the University of South Florida Oracle, Glen Besterfield, associate dean of Undergraduate Studies at USF, said students graduating with more credits than they need take away seats in classes from other students who need those credits to finish school on time.

A credit hour at UNL is $187 for residents and $555 for non-residents. Tuition for a three-credit class would go from $561 to $841.50 for a resident and $1665 to $2497.50 for a non-resident with the 50 percent fine.

Students at UNL graduate with extra credits often, but unlike in Florida, UNL officials don't mind.

Juan Franco, vice chancellor for student affairs at UNL, said students should graduate with anywhere from 128 to 135 credits.

"I do know if students decide to get a second major or second degree even, they take more," Franco said. "If they think that's going to help them, then I don't see that to be a big deal."

Graduates from December 2008 and May 2009 averaged 139 credits, said William Nunez, director of Institution Research and Development at UNL. Nunez agreed that students who want to take more credits should be allowed.

"You're penalizing students who may have a legitimate desire too," Nunez said.

Students who take longer to graduate usually choose to do so, said Craig Munier, director of Scholarships and Financial Aid.

"They might want to get a second minor or a double major or even embellish their resume to make themselves more marketable," Munier said. "With the economy like it is, you can appreciate people who want to take a little longer to wait for more ideal job prospects."

The difference in need for credit regulation between Florida and Nebraska universities is directly correlated to population, Munier said.

"It's not as much of the case here because we are in a sparsely populated area of the country," Munier said. "We have more of an issue of not having enough students than having too many. We don't have the same sort of challenges."

Students who take "too many credit hours" aren't prevalent at UNL, Franco said. They are usually transfer students or people who have switched majors.

"I do know some students to take an extraordinary amount of credits," Franco said. "But, generally speaking, that's an exception."

A hot issue with scholarship students has been advanced placement, or AP credits from high school and their role in a student's total accumulated hours. Some scholarships have a cap at 135 credits, like the Regents, National Merit and National Hispanic scholarships.

Munier said AP credits will not count toward the total number of credits, but will toward concurrent credits, when students in high school take college courses through UNL.

With excess credits posing little problem to UNL, Munier said he doesn't see administrators adopting a policy similar to the one in Florida.