N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. tit. 8, § 4-1.2 – Definitions.

(a) Accreditation means the status of public recognition that the Commissioner of Education and the Board of Regents grant to an educational institution that meets the standards and requirements prescribed in this Subpart.
(b) Accreditation action means accreditation, accreditation with conditions, probationary accreditation, approval of substantive changes in the scope of accreditation, and denial, revocation, or termination of accreditation.
(c) Accreditation with conditions means accreditation that requires the institution to take steps to remedy issues raised in a review for accreditation, and provide reports and/or submit to site visits concerning such issues, provided that such issues do not materially affect the institution's substantial compliance with the standards and requirements for accreditation.
(d) Adverse action or adverse accreditation action means suspension, withdrawal, denial, revocation, or termination of accreditation or pre-accreditation.
(e) Additional location means a location of an institution geographically apart from the main campus, other than a branch campus, at which the institution offers at least 50 percent of an educational program.
(f) Advisory council means the Regents Advisory Council on Institutional Accreditation established pursuant to section 3.12 of this Title.
(g) Branch campus means a location of an institution that is geographically apart and independent of the main campus of the institution, meaning that the location is permanent in nature, offers courses in educational programs leading to degrees or certificates authorized by the department, has its own faculty and administrative or supervisory organization, and has its own budgetary and hiring authority.
(h) Certificate means a credential issued by an institution in recognition of the completion of a registered curriculum other than one leading to a degree.
(i) Correspondence education shall mean education provided through one or more courses 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 the student is limited, is not regular and substantive, and is primarily initiated by the student and is typically self-paced.
(j) Course means an organized series of instructional and learning activities dealing with a subject.
(k) Curriculum or program or program of study means the formal educational requirements necessary to qualify for certificates or degrees.
(l) Credit means a unit of academic award applicable towards a degree offered by the institution.
(m) Degree means an academic award listed in section 3.50 of this Title.
(n) Department means the Education Department of the State of New York.
(o) Deputy commissioner means the Deputy Commissioner for Higher Education of the State Education Department.
(p) Distance education means education that uses one or more of the following technologies 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:
1. (1) the internet;
2. (2) one-way and two-way transmissions through open broadcast, closed circuit, cable, microwave, broadband lines, fiber optics, satellite, or wireless communications devices;
3. (3) audioconferencing; or
4. (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 subdivision.
(q) Higher Education Act or HEA means the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended.
(r) Institution of higher education or institution means an institution authorized by the Regents to confer degrees.
(s) Probationary accreditation means accreditation for a set period of time, not to exceed two years, during which the institution shall come into compliance with standards for accreditation through corrective action.
(t) Principal center means the location of the principal administrative offices and instructional facilities of an institution of higher education.
(u) Secretary means the United States Secretary of Education.
(v) Semester hour means a credit, point, or other unit granted for the satisfactory completion of a course which requires at least 15 hours (of 50 minutes each) of instruction and at least 30 hours of supplementary assignments, or the equivalent as approved by the commissioner.
(w) State means New York State.
(x) Teach-out agreement means a written agreement between or among institutions that are accredited or pre-accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency that provides for the equitable treatment of students if one of those institutions stops offering an educational program before all students enrolled in that program have completed the program.
(y) Teach-out plan shall mean a written plan 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 prior to all students completing their program of study. A teach-out plan may include a teach-out agreement between institutions.

As used in this Subpart: