FCPC Educational Glossary

Abroad: Any geographic location not included in the aggregate United States.
Academic Program: Instructional program of a professional or non-occupationally specific nature leading toward an associate, bachelor, master, doctor or first-professional degree or resulting in credits that can be applied to one of these degrees.
Academic year: The period of time generally extending from September to June; usually equated to two semesters or trimesters, three quarters, or the period covered by a 4-1-4 plan.
Accrediting Agencies: Agencies that establish operating standards for educational or professional institutions and programs, determine the extent to which the standards are met, and publicly announce their findings. There are two types: 1. United States Department of Education (USDOE) approved accrediting agencies, and 2. private accrediting agencies that are not required to have USDOE approval.
Administratively Equal Institution: Separately organized, or independently administered site or campus with its own full administration and records system within an institutional system.  This institution may report to a systems office but does not report to any other institution.
Admission Test Scores: Scores on standardized admissions tests or special admission tests.
Associate Degree: An award that normally requires at least two but fewer then four years of full-time equivalent college work  (Source: IPEDS).
Agent: means a person who is employed by a college that is subject to licensing requirements or an out-of-state college, and who solicits business for the college at any place other than the legal place of business of the college.  The term does not include an entertainer at  public event whose objective is to improve public relations for a college, if the entertainer does not accept the commitment of prospective students to attend the college.
Bachelor Credit Freshman: A lower level undergraduate student enrolled in a university  parallel/college transfer or baccalaureate degree program, generally one who has completed no more than thirty semester credit hours. Remedial students should be included if no separate category for remedial students is provided.
Bachelor Credit Sophomore: A lower undergraduate student enrolled in a university-parallel/college transfer or baccalaureate degree program, generally one who has completed more than thirty but no more then sixty semester credit hours.
Bachelor Degree: An award that normally requires at least four but not more than five years of full-time equivalent college-level work. This includes all bachelor degrees conferred in a five-year cooperative or work study plan or program. A cooperative plan provides for alternate class attendance and employment in business, industry, or government; thus, it allows the student to combine actual work experience with college studies. Also includes bachelor degrees in which the normal four years of work is completed in three years. (Source: IPEDS)
Board: Room and Board for Campus housing
Board Charges: The charge for an academic year for meals, for a specific number of days per week.
Branch Operation:  When referring to a college chartered in Florida, means any location away from the main administrative campus, at which location the college offers courses carrying college credit.
Census Date: A census date is a day when a specified count is made: In this application, it is the time during an academic term when a count of enrolled students is made for reporting. By definition, a census date must be arbitrary to some extent and must reflect the anticipated use of the statistics resulting from its application.
Certificate of Exemption or License: means a document issued by the board to an independant college, signifying that the college has demonstrated that it meets the statutorily prescribed criteria.
College: Any educational entity which confers or offers to confer a degree or which furnishes or offers to furnish instruction leading toward, or prerequisite to, college credit or a degree beyond the secondary level.  The term includes any independant college chartered in this state and any Florida center or branch campus of an out-of-state college.
Certificate: A formal award certifying the satisfactory completion of a postsecondary education program. (Source: IPEDS)
Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study (CAGS): An award that normally requires 24 credit hours beyond a master's program and does not require a dissertation. (IPEDS: Post Master's certificate). The same institutional requirements may result in a specialist degree where a degree rather than a certificate is awarded. In the SCHEV integrated data base, students in certificate of advanced graduate study and specialist degree program are coded as having program levels of post-master's.
Certification with the Florida Council of Private Colleges, Inc.: includes quality peer review, onsite visits, verifying data, to FCPC standards which exceed the minimum standards of the state of Florida
Chief Administrator: The principal administrative official responsible for the direction of all affairs and operations of a postsecondary educational institution or that component of an organization that conducts postsecondary education and may report to a governing board.
Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) Code: Six-digit code that classifies instructional program. The 1990 revision is the version currently in use.
Classification of Students
Freshman  -  A student enrolled in first year of college study  (1-30 semester credits).
Sophomore  -  A student enrolled in second year of college study (31-60 semester credits).
Junior  -  A student enrolled in third year of college study (61-90 credits).
Senior  -  A student enrolled in fourth year of college study (91-120 semester credits).
Master  -  A student enrolled in graduate courses(s) after receiving a bachelor degree working toward a master or specialist degree.
Doctor  -  A student enrolled in graduate course(s) after receiving a master or specialist degree working toward a doctor degree.
Unclassified -  A special student taking courses for credit but not identified in one of the above classifications.
Contact Hour: A unit of measure that represents an hour (50-70 minutes) of scheduled instruction given to students.
Continuing Education Units (CEU's): A statistic that represents ten contact hours of participation in an organized educational experience under responsible sponsorship, capable direction, and qualified instruction. A decimal fraction of a unit may be awarded for an offering of shorter duration.
Correspondence: Method of instruction with students receiving structured units of information and accompanying material completely through the mail.
Counseling Service: Activities designed to assist students in making plans and decisions related to their education, career, or personal development.
Credit: Recognition of attendance and/or performance in an instructional activity (course or program) that can be applied by a recipient to requirements for a degree, diploma, certificate, or other formal award at a given institution.
Credit Hour: A unit of measure that represents an hour of instruction that can be applied to the total number of hours needed for completing the requirements of a degree, diploma, certificate, or other formal award. (Source: IPEDS).
Degree: An award conferred by a college, university, or other postsecondary educational institution as official recognition for the successful completion of a program of studies. (Source: IPEDS).
Degree: Any credential awarded which is generally taken to signify satisfactory completion of the requirements of an academic, educational, or professional program of study beyond the level of a specialized associate degree or any honorary credential conferred for meritorious recognition.
Distance Learning: Method of instruction designed for students who live at a distance from the teaching institution. Instructional materials are provided to the student through various media with structured units of information, assigned exercises for practice, and examinations to measure achievement, which in turn are submitted to the teaching institution for evaluation.
Faith Based Institution: An educational institution whose instruction is based on a Supreme Being that is the Creator of the universe that established doctrinal tenets in the Holy Bible which provides wisdom, understanding, and direction for our daily living with assurance of a life hereafter. In the words of Martin Luther the, ‘Sola Scriptura’ principle for living.
Fair Consumer Practices: Means honesty, fairness, and complete disclosure to students in the areas of recruitment, admissions, student financial assistance, obligations to repay student loans, placement assistance and job placement rates, advertising, refund policies, the meaning and recognition of different types of accreditation, and the transferability and recognition of the college’s credits to other colleges or employers.
Florida Branch Campus of an Out-of-State College: Means any operation  in Florida of an administratively equal Florida Branch Campus of an Out-of-State College when such operation offers one or more degree programs that culminate in a degree being awarded in Florida, and the Florida operation has its own president with majority autonomy, administration, student services, library, faculty, and academic facilities.  The Florida operation may also meet the following:
1.    may or may not be incorporated as a Florida domestic corporation
2.    may or may not be accredited by a U.S.D.O.E. recognized accrediting agency, approved by Florida.
Florida Center of an Out-of-State College - Any operation in Florida by an out-of-state college or university whose articles of incorporation are not as a Florida domestic corporation, when such operation includes offering one or more courses or educational programs in Florida which carry college credit that may be applied toward a degree, whether the degree itself is awarded in Florida or elsewhere.
Fifth-Year Undergraduate: A student in the fifth year of a five-year bachelor's degree program.
First Professional Student: A student enrolled in any of the following degree programs:
Dentistry (D.D.S. or D.M.D.); Medicine (M.D.); Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.); Law (L.L.B. or J.D.) Pharmacy (Pharm. D.);
Theology (M.Div. or M.H.L. or B.D.)
First-Time Freshman: An entering freshman, including the following, who has never attended any college:
1. A student enrolled in the fall term who is attending college for the first time in the fall term or who attended for the first time in the prior     summer term.
2. A student who entered with advanced standing due to college credits earned before graduation from high school, regardless of the     number of credits earned.
3. A remedial student enrolled for the first-time.
First-Year Graduate Student: A student enrolled in a master degree program, regardless of the number of graduate credit hours completed; or a doctoral, specialist, or certificate of advanced graduate study student who has not completed more than thirty credit hours of graduate studies.
Four-One-Four Plan: The 4-1-4 calendar consists of 4 courses taken for four months, 1 course taken for one month, and 4 courses taken for four months.  There may be an additional summer session.
Freshman: An institutionally determined academic level typically based on the number of course credit hours a student has completed; the term generally indicates a student in the first year of a bachelor degree or occupational or technical program. Remedial students should be included if no separate category for remedial students is provided. In cases where first-time freshmen have earned sufficient credits before enrollment to be classified other than freshmen, guideline #2 of First-time Freshman (see above) will prevail.
Full-Time Equivalent Day Students: The number of FTE students generated by classes with a beginning time between and including the hours of 7:00 a.m. to 5:59 p.m.
Full-time Equivalent Evening Students: The number of FTE students generated with a beginning time between and including the hours of 6:00 p.m. to 6:59 a.m.
Full-Time Equivalent Student (FTE): A statistic derived from the student-credit hours productivity of an institution. The number of FTE students in the fall term is obtained by dividing the total number of undergraduate, first professional, and graduate credit-hours per term by 15, 15, and 12 respectively. The number of FTE students in summer on-campus, annual off-campus, and regular session is obtained by dividing the total number of undergraduate, first professional, and graduate credit hours per session by 30, 30, and 24 respectively.
Full-Time Student: An undergraduate or first professional student enrolled for twelve or more credit hours in a semester or quarter, or a graduate student enrolled for nine or more credit hours in a semester or quarter. A semester credit hour is equivalent to 750 clock minutes of instruction; a quarter credit hour, to 500 clock minutes of instruction. The hours of instruction must be spread over no more than sixteen weeks.
Graduate Student: A student enrolled in a master certificate of advanced graduate study, specialist, or doctor program, not including candidates for first professional degrees. An unclassified student whose enrollment in classes at the graduate level constitutes more than half of course load is also considered a graduate student.
General Education Or Liberal Arts Courses:  Those courses designed to place emphasis on cognitive development rather than on  vocational objective, and may include courses such as English, history, philosophy, literature, religion, art, music, sociology, foreign languages, humanities, mathematics, chemistry, biology, and psychology, when such courses are not specifically designed to contribute toward a nonacademic program.  For example, English Composition is considered a general education or liberal arts course, but Business English is not.
Headcount Student: A student enrolled for more then zero credit hours in courses offered for degree or certificate credit or a student who meets the criteria for classification as a remedial student.
Hearing Impaired: Any person whose hearing loss is sufficiently severe to adversely affect their educational performance.
High School Diploma or Recognized Equivalent: A document certifying the successful completion of a prescribed secondary school program of studies, or the attainment of satisfactory scores on the Tests of General Educational Development (GED) or another state specified examination.
Home Study: Method of instruction designed for students who live at a distance from the teaching institution.  Instructional materials are provided to the student through various media with structured units of information, assigned exercises for practice, and examinations to measure achievement, which in turn are submitted to the teaching institution for evaluation.
In-State Student: A student who is a legal resident of the state in which they attend school.
Institutional System: Two or more institutions of higher education under the control or supervision of a single administrative body.
Instructional Faculty: Members of the Instruction/Research Staff whose primary assignment is instruction including those with release time for research.
License: A regular license or temporary license, as provided by rule.
Local Educational Agency (LEA): A public board of education or other public authority legally constituted within a State for either administrative control of or direction of, or to perform service functions for, public elementary or secondary schools in, (1) a city, county, township, school district, or other political subdivision of a State; (2) such combination of school districts or counties a State recognizes as an administrative agency for its public elementary or secondary schools; (3) any other public institution or agency that has administrative control and direction of a public elementary or secondary school; and (4) any other public institution or agency that has administrative control and direction of a vocational education program.
Local Resident: A student who is a legal resident of the locality in which they attend school.
Master Degree: An award that requires the successful completion of a program of study of at least the full-time equivalent of one but not more then two academic years of work beyond the bachelor's degree. (Source: IPEDS)
Military Installations: One or more buildings or sites owned or operated by the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, or Coast Guard, including Reserves and National Guard.
Mobility Impaired: Any person who must use a standard manual or electric wheelchair or other assistive device to move from place to place or any person who otherwise finds stairs and other similar physical features impediments to movements.
Multi-institution System: An institution that has either: (1) two or more sites or campuses responsible to one administration which may or may not be located on one of the sites or campuses, or (2) a primary site or main campus with one or more branches attached to it.
Non-credit Courses: A course or activity having no credit applicable toward a formal award, certificate, or degree.
Non-Degree-Seeking Undergraduate Student: A student whose enrollment in undergraduate level courses for credit constitutes half or more of his/her course load and who is not recognized by the institution as accepted into a degree or formal award program who cannot be classified by academic level.
Occupational Technical Freshman: A lower level undergraduate student enrolled in a post secondary certificate, diploma, or associate degree program which prepares for immediate employment, generally one who has completed no more than thirty semester credit hours. Remedial students should be included if no separate category for remedial students is provided.
Occupational Technical/ Program: A post secondary certificate, diploma, or associate degree program which prepares for immediate employment.
Occupation/Technical Sophomore: A lower level undergraduate student enrolled in a post secondary certificate, diploma, or associate degree program which prepares for immediate employment, generally one who has completed more than thirty but no more than sixty semester credit hours.
Occupational/Technical Student: A lower level undergraduate student enrolled in a post secondary certificate, diploma, or associate degree program which prepares for immediate employment.
Off-Campus Branches - An Off-Campus Branch is any physical location which is geographically separate from the main campus and which has a director, coordinator, or facilitator and at which classes are offered.  They can be in the following three areas for purposes of this data collection:
    a.    Florida Off-Campus Branches,
    b.    U.S.A. Off-Campus Branches (excluding Florida),
    c.    International Off-Campus Branches (excluding U.S.A.).
Off-Campus Facility: A facility located some distance away from the educational institution which operates it.
Off-Campus Student: A student enrolled for more than zero credit hours of off-campus instruction who is not enrolled for any credit hours of on-campus instruction.
On-Campus Student: A student enrolled for more than zero credit hours of on-campus instruction. Include any student who is enrolled for both on and off-campus instruction.
Out-of State Student: A student who is not a legal resident of the State in which they attend school.
Parent Institution: The administrative unit or institution in a multi-institutional system through which all the system's institutions, branches, and programs are linked.
Part-Time Student: An undergraduate or first professional student enrolled for fewer than twelve credit hours in a semester or quarter, or a graduate student enrolled for fewer than nine credit hours in a semester or quarter. A semester  credit hour is equivalent to 750 clock minutes of instruction; a quarter credit hour, to 500 clock minutes of instruction. The hours of instruction must be spread over no more than sixteen weeks.
Placement Service For Program Completers: Assistance for students in evaluating their career alternatives as well as in obtaining full-time employment upon leaving the institution.
Postbaccalaureate Certificate: Requires completion of an organized program of study requiring 30 credit hours beyond the bachelor designed for persons who have completed a baccalaureate degree, but which does not meet the requirements of academic degrees carrying the title of master.
Post-master Certificate: Requires completion of an organized program of study of 60 credit hours or more beyond the master degree, but does not meet the requirements of academic degrees at the doctor level.
Postsecondary Certificate, Award or Diploma (less than one academic year): Requires the completion of a program that would be completed in less than one academic year (2 semesters or 3 quarters) or less than 900 contact hours by a student enrolled full-time.
Postsecondary Certificate, Award or Diploma (at least one but less than two academic years): Requires completion of an organized program of study at the postsecondary level of instruction of at least one but less than two full-time equivalent academic years, or designed for completion in at least 30 but less than 60 credit hours, or in  at least 900 but less than 1,800 contact hours.
Postsecondary Certificate, Award or Diploma (at least two but less than four academic years): Requires completion of an organized program of study at the postsecondary level of instruction of at least two but less than four full-time equivalent academic years, or designed for completion in at least 60 but less than 120 credit hours, or in  at least 1,800 but less than 3,600 contact hours.
Postsecondary Education: The provision of a formal instructional program whose curriculum is designed primarily for students who have completed the requirements for a high school diploma or its equivalent.  This includes programs whose purpose is academic, vocational, and continuing professional education, and excludes  a vocational and adult basic education programs.
Predominant Calendar System: The method by which an institution structures most of its courses for the calendar year.
Private For-Profit Organization: An organization licensed to operate which is subject to the federal and state tax codes.
Private Non-Profit Organization: A religious, educational, or benevolent organization authorized to operate in a state which is recognized as non-profit under the appropriate state and/or U.S. statutes. This status is normally determined by legal procedure and Internal Revenue policy.
Program: A combination of courses and related activities organized for the attainment of broad educational objectives described by the institution: (Source: IPEDS).
Program With No Formal Award: Any formally organized program with stated occupational objectives and well defined completion requirements that does not lead to a formal award.
Quarter Calendar System: An academic year consisting of 3 sessions called quarters of about 12 weeks each.  The range may be from 10 to 15 weeks.  There may be an additional quarter in the summer.
Re-Admitted Student: A student whose return to an institution requires action by an admission office.
Regular Session: On campus fall and spring terms.
Remedial Course Level: Course work in preparation for lower level courses. Remedial courses are limited to English Composition, Reading, Mathematics, and English as a Second Language. Although such courses are not usually offered for degree credit, the credit hours taken in remedial work may be considered as degree seeking for funding and reporting. Budgetary guidelines restrict these courses to HEGIS disciplines beginning with 15 and 17.
Remedial Student: A student who is enrolled only in remedial courses and who does not have any college credit that can be used to determine another student level.
Residence: A person's permanent address as determined by such evidence as a driver license or voter registration.  For entering freshmen, residence may be legal residence of a parent or guardian.
Residency Requirements: Policies or laws requiring habitation in a particular place for a specified period of time.
Resident Alien: A person who is not a citizen or national of the United States and who has been lawfully admitted for permanent residence (and who holds alien registration receipt cards Form 1-551/155). (Source: IPEDS).
Room Charges: The charge for an academic year for rooming accommodations of a typical student sharing a room with other students.
Senior: An institutionally determined academic level typically based on the number of course credit hours a student has completed; the term generally indicates a student in the fourth year of a bachelor program.
Simultaneous-Enrolled: A student who is enrolled at two or more post secondary institutions during the same term.
Single Institution: A postsecondary institution that operates independently from other institutions.  The institution may offer instruction at more than one geographic site, but all administration and governance and record keeping are at one site.
Sophomore: An institutionally determined academic level typically based on the number of course credit hours a student has completed; the term generally indicates a student in the second year of a bachelor degree or occupational or technical program.
Special Admissions Test: Tests prepared by or for a particular institution, or State (for State institutions) and administered by the institution, for purposes of determining prospective students' skills and competencies.
Standardized Admissions Tests: Tests prepared and administered by an agency independent of any postsecondary education institution, for purposes of making available to prospective students, information about the students academic qualifications relative to a national sample.  Examples are the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Testing (ACT).
Test of English As A Foreign Language (TOEFL).  Standardized test designed to determine an applicant's ability to benefit from  instruction in English.
Transfer Student: A student entering the institution for the first time but known to have previously, attended a post secondary institution at the same level (e.g., undergraduate, graduate, first professional) (Source IPEDS). A student who was dual-enrolled at a college or university while still enrolled in high school should not be coded as a transfer student, but as a first-time freshman. See First-Time Freshman #2.
Trimester: An academic year consisting of 3 terms of about 15 weeks each.
Tuition And Required Fees.
Tuition: Amount of money charged to students for instructional services.  Tuition may be charged per term, per course, or per credit.
Required Fees:   Fixed sum charged to students for items not covered by tuition and required of such a large proportion of all students that the student who does not pay the charge is an exception.
Undergraduate Student: A student enrolled in a university parallel/college transfer program, a four or-five-year bachelor's degree program, an associate degree program, or an occupational or technical program that  is normally terminal and would normally result in formal recognition at or below the baccalaureate level. Other degree-seeking and non-degree seeking students  whose enrollment in classes at the baccalaureate level constitutes more than half of their course load are also considered undergraduates. A remedial student should also be considered an undergraduate.
University Without Walls/Open University: Educational institutions with open admissions policies that have no campus residence requirements and often use non-traditional delivery systems (telecourses, etc.).
Upper Division: Courses that are part of a baccalaureate program, designed to be taken by junior, senior, or fifth-year undergraduate students.
Visually Impaired: Any person whose sight loss is sufficiently severe to adversely affect educational performance.