Continuing Education Units (CEUs)

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools defines a continuing education unit (CEU) as ten contact hours of participation in an organized continuing education experience under responsible sponsorship, capable direction, and qualified instruction. CEUs are recognized internationally as a measure of professional education and training by employers, industry, professional associations, and certification and licensing agencies.

Participants in programs offered through the Center for Professional Development who successfully complete programs that qualify for Continuing Education Units will receive CEUs on the basis of one CEU for each ten contact hours of successful participation in approved noncredit conferences, workshops, seminars, institutes, short courses, or other special activities. CEUs are recorded to one decimal point. For example, completion of a program of 14 contact hours would be recorded as 1.4 CEUs. CEUs should not be interpreted as the equivalent of or a substitute for college credit.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools requires that the following criteria be met by programs awarding individual CEUs.

1. The noncredit activity is planned in response to an assessment of educational need for a specific target population.
2. There is a statement of objectives and rationale.
3. Content is selected and is organized in a sequential manner.
4. There is evidence of preplanning which should include opportunity for input by a representative of the target group to be served, faculty content expertise and continuing educational personnel.
5. The activity is of an instructional nature and is sponsored or approved by an academic or administrative unit of the institution best qualified to affect the quality of the program content and to approve the resource personnel.
6. There is provision for registration of individual participants and the capability to generate data for institutional reporting.
7. Appropriate evaluation procedures are utilized and criteria are established for awarding CEUs to individual students prior to the beginning of the activity. This may include the evaluation of student performance, instructional procedures, and course effectiveness.

Participants receive certificates at the end of each qualifying course for which they met the attendance and performance requirements.  The certificate annotates the number of CEUs earned. Duplicate certificates may be requested from the Center accompanied by a $10 payment.