The following definitions apply to terms used in this part:

Accredited: The status of public recognition that a nationally recognized accrediting agency grants to an institution or educational program that meets the agency's established requirements.

Award year: The period of time from July 1 of one year through June 30 of the following year.

Branch Campus: A location of an institution that is geographically apart and independent of the main campus of the institution. The Secretary considers a location of an institution to be independent of the main campus if the location -

1. (1) Is permanent in nature;
2. (2) Offers courses in educational programs leading to a degree, certificate, or other recognized educational credential;
3. (3) Has its own faculty and administrative or supervisory organization; and

4. (4) Has its own budgetary and hiring authority.

   Clock hour: A period of time consisting of -

5. (1) A 50- to 60-minute class, lecture, or recitation in a 60-minute period;
6. (2) A 50- to 60-minute faculty-supervised laboratory, shop training, or internship in a 60-minute period; or

7. (3) Sixty minutes of preparation in a correspondence course.

   Correspondence course: (1) A course provided by an institution under which the institution provides instructional materials, by mail or electronic transmission, including examinations on the materials, to students who are separated from the instructor. Interaction between the instructor and student is limited, is not regular and substantive, and is primarily initiated by the student. Correspondence courses are typically self-paced.

8. (2) If a course is part correspondence and part residential training, the Secretary considers the course to be a correspondence course.

9. (3) A correspondence course is not distance education.

   Credit hour: Except as provided in 34 CFR 668.8(k) and (l), a credit hour is an amount of work represented in intended learning outcomes and verified by evidence of student achievement that is an institutionally established equivalency that reasonably approximates not less than -

10. (1) One hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction and a minimum of two hours of out of class student work each week for approximately fifteen weeks for one semester or trimester hour of credit, or ten to twelve weeks for one quarter hour of credit, or the equivalent amount of work over a different amount of time; or

11. (2) At least an equivalent amount of work as required in paragraph (1) of this definition for other academic activities as established by the institution including laboratory work, internships, practica, studio work, and other academic work leading to the award of credit hours.

    Direct assessment program: A program as described in 34 CFR 668.10.

    Distance education means education that uses one or more of the technologies listed in paragraphs (1) through (4) of this definition to deliver instruction to students who are separated from the instructor and to support regular and substantive interaction between the students and the instructor, either synchronously or asynchronously. The technologies may include -

12. (1) The internet;
13. (2) One-way and two-way transmissions through open broadcast, closed circuit, cable, microwave, broadband lines, fiber optics, satellite, or wireless communications devices;
14. (3) Audio conferencing; or

15. (4) Video cassettes, DVDs, and CD-ROMs, if the cassettes, DVDs, or CD-ROMs are used in a course in conjunction with any of the technologies listed in paragraphs (1) through (3) of this definition.

    Educational program: (1) A legally authorized postsecondary program of organized instruction or study that:

    1. (i) Leads to an academic, professional, or vocational degree, or certificate, or other recognized educational credential, or is a comprehensive transition and postsecondary program, as described in 34 CFR part 668, subpart O; and
    2. (ii) May, in lieu of credit hours or clock hours as a measure of student learning, utilize direct assessment of student learning, or recognize the direct assessment of student learning by others, if such assessment is consistent with the accreditation of the institution or program utilizing the results of the assessment and with the provisions of § 668.10.

    3. (2) The Secretary does not consider that an institution provides an educational program if the institution does not provide instruction itself (including a course of independent study) but merely gives credit for one or more of the following: Instruction provided by other institutions or schools; examinations or direct assessments provided by agencies or organizations; or other accomplishments such as “life experience.”

       Eligible institution: An institution that -

    4. (1) Qualifies as -

       1. (i) An institution of higher education, as defined in § 600.4;
       2. (ii) A proprietary institution of higher education, as defined in § 600.5; or
       3. (iii) A postsecondary vocational institution, as defined in § 600.6; and

    5. (2) Meets all the other applicable provisions of this part.

       Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Programs: The loan programs (formerly called the Guaranteed Student Loan (GSL) programs) authorized by title IV-B of the HEA, including the Federal Stafford Loan, Federal PLUS, Federal Supplemental Loans for Students (Federal SLS), and Federal Consolidation Loan programs, in which lenders use their own funds to make loans to enable students or their parents to pay the costs of the students' attendance at eligible institutions. The Federal Stafford Loan, Federal PLUS, Federal SLS, and Federal Consolidation Loan programs are defined in 34 CFR part 668.

       Incarcerated student: A student who is serving a criminal sentence in a Federal, State, or local penitentiary, prison, jail, reformatory, work farm, or other similar correctional institution. A student is not considered incarcerated if that student is in a half-way house or home detention or is sentenced to serve only weekends.

       Legally authorized: The legal status granted to an institution through a charter, license, or other written document issued by the appropriate agency or official of the State in which the institution is physically located.

       Nationally recognized accrediting agency: An agency or association that the Secretary recognizes as a reliable authority to determine the quality of education or training offered by an institution or a program offered by an institution. The Secretary recognizes these agencies and associations under the provisions of 34 CFR part 602 and publishes a list of the recognized agencies in the Federal Register.

       Nonprofit institution: An institution that -

    6. (1)

       1. (i) Is owned and operated by one or more nonprofit corporations or associations, no part of the net earnings of which benefits any private shareholder or individual;
       2. (ii) Is legally authorized to operate as a nonprofit organization by each State in which it is physically located; and
       3. (iii) Is determined by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to be an organization to which contributions are tax-deductible in accordance with section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. 501(c)(3)); or

    7. (2) For a foreign institution -

       1. (i) An institution that is owned and operated only by one or more nonprofit corporations or associations; and

       2. (ii)

          1. (A) If a recognized tax authority of the institution's home country is recognized by the Secretary for purposes of making determinations of an institution's nonprofit status for title IV purposes, is determined by that tax authority to be a nonprofit educational institution; or
          2. (B) If no recognized tax authority of the institution's home country is recognized by the Secretary for purposes of making determinations of an institution's nonprofit status for title IV purposes, the foreign institution demonstrates to the satisfaction of the Secretary that it is a nonprofit educational institution.

    8. (3) Is determined by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to be an organization to which contributions are tax-deductible in accordance with section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. 501(c)(3)).

       One-academic-year training program: An educational program that is at least one academic year as defined under 34 CFR 668.2.

       Preaccredited: A status that a nationally recognized accrediting agency, recognized by the Secretary to grant that status, has accorded an unaccredited public or private nonprofit institution that is progressing toward accreditation within a reasonable period of time.

       Recognized equivalent of a high school diploma: The following are the equivalent of a high school diploma -

    9. (1) A General Education Development Certificate (GED);
    10. (2) A State certificate received by a student after the student has passed a State-authorized examination that the State recognizes as the equivalent of a high school diploma;
    11. (3) An academic transcript of a student who has successfully completed at least a two-year program that is acceptable for full credit toward a bachelor's degree; or

    12. (4) For a person who is seeking enrollment in an educational program that leads to at least an associate degree or its equivalent and who has not completed high school but who excelled academically in high school, documentation that the student excelled academically in high school and has met the formalized, written policies of the institution for admitting such students.

        Recognized occupation: An occupation that is -

    13. (1) Identified by a Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code established by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) or an Occupational Information Network O*Net-SOC code established by the Department of Labor, which is available at www.onetonline.org or its successor site; or

    14. (2) Determined by the Secretary in consultation with the Secretary of Labor to be a recognized occupation.

        Regular student: A person who is enrolled or accepted for enrollment at an institution for the purpose of obtaining a degree, certificate, or other recognized educational credential offered by that institution.

        Secretary: The Secretary of the Department of Education or an official or employee of the Department of Education acting for the Secretary under a delegation of authority.

        State: A State of the Union, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of Palau. The latter three are also known as the Freely Associated States.

        State authorization reciprocity agreement: An agreement between two or more States that authorizes an institution located and legally authorized in a State covered by the agreement to provide postsecondary education through distance education or correspondence courses to students residing in other States covered by the agreement and does not prohibit any State in the agreement from enforcing its own statutes and regulations, whether general or specifically directed at all or a subgroup of educational institutions.

        Teach-out plan: A written plan developed by an institution that provides for the equitable treatment of students if an institution, or an institutional location that provides 100 percent of at least one program, ceases to operate before all students have completed their program of study, and may include, if required by the institution's accrediting agency, a teach-out agreement between institutions.

        Title IV, HEA program: Any of the student financial assistance programs listed in 34 CFR 668.1(c).

        (Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1001, 1002, 1071, et seq., 1078-2, 1088, 1091, 1094, 1099b, 1099c, 1141; 26 U.S.C. 501(c))

[59 FR 22336, Apr. 29, 1994, as amended at 63 FR 40622, July 29, 1998; 64 FR 58615, Oct. 29, 1999; 71 FR 45692, Aug. 9, 2006; 74 FR 55425, Oct. 27, 2009; 74 FR 55932, Oct. 29, 2009; 75 FR 66946, Oct. 29, 2010, 75 FR 67192, Nov. 1, 2010; 79 FR 65006, Oct. 31, 2014; 81 FR 92262, Dec. 19, 2016]