1. Appropriate Number of Credit Hours for Coursework
Pursuant to American Bar Association Standard 310, the University of Miami School of law maintains the following policy to determine the appropriate number of credit hours for coursework performed by students and to ensure faculty compliance.
a. Traditional Courses
Unless otherwise specified, students will complete at least 42.5 of coursework per credit hour awarded. For coursework with a classroom component, for each credit hour awarded, students will receive at least one hour of direct faculty instruction for fourteen weeks (or the equivalent amount of work over a different amount of time), thirty hours of out-of-class academic engagement, and time for a final assessment or additional instruction, as follows:
Per ABA Interpretation 310-1, “fifty minutes suffices for one hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction” under Standard 310. See Managing Director’s Guidance Memo, Standard 310 (May 2016).
Out-of-class academic engagement is considered in the aggregate over the semester. Some courses are offered under more compressed schedules during a semester. In such situations, the Law Registrar’s office will ensure compliance.
The Fall and Spring semesters are comprised of thirteen weeks of classroom instruction (plus makeup days for holidays). The Summer semester is comprised of between seven and ten weeks of instruction (plus makeup days for holidays) depending on course cadence.
Classes will be scheduled to comply with the amount of classroom time noted above. Instruction times may be adjusted to account for out-of-class, supervised instruction.
i. Courses with In-Class or Take-Home Final Examinations: For courses with final examinations, there is a separate minimum time for assessment based on the total number of credit hours for the course.
ii. Courses with Other Methods of Assessment: Many courses focus on oral and written advocacy. As such, the assessment for some courses is not in the form of a traditional final examination, but a final written or oral assessment. In such courses, the form of assessment, whether a research paper, oral presentation, or a similar advocacy, research, or writing project, will require significant effort in excess of the equivalent number of in-class hours leading up to and during the week of final examinations or at an equivalent time earlier in the semester. At their choosing, faculty members may include additional instruction at the time that would have otherwise been dedicated to a final examination.
iii. Distance Learning Courses: The standards set out in this policy apply equally to in- person and distance education courses.
Faculty Supervised Writing A student may earn two credits and satisfy an upper-level J.D. graduation writing requirement by registering for a Faculty Supervised Writing Assignment. These writing assignments are typically 30-40 pages in length and involve multiple drafts after receiving feedback from the faculty supervisor (see ABA Standard 303(a)(2) and Interpretation 303-2). In exceptional circumstances, students may petition the Vice Dean for Academic Affairs to receive 3-credits, which will be granted if commensurate with the time and effort required and the anticipated quality of the educational experience of the student, consistent with ABA Standard 305.
b. Clinics
A student must complete at least 42.5 hours of work per semester for each academic credit for working in a law school clinic. Students must log all casework hours worked, even after the 42.5 hour per credit hour threshold is satisfied. Students work on legal cases and projects under faculty supervision and prepare for, and attend, clinic class.
c. Field Placements
A student must complete at least 42.5 hours of work per semester for each academic credit for working at a field placement (externship). An Externship can only be done for 3 credits per semester, no more and no less. Students must submit a learning plan and goals memorandum (to be completed with their field placement supervisor) within the first week of their externship. They must submit weekly timesheets which log all the work done at their placement, they must also submit a mid-semester self-evaluation, a final self-evaluation, and a time certification form at the end of the semester. Students are required to attend a weekly seminar and meet in individual supervision meetings with the Externship Director three times each semester. Externships can be completed in public interest organizations, the judiciary, government agencies and in-house legal departments. Students must be supervised by a licensed attorney and performing substantive legal work. Students may not complete an externship at a private law firm. log all hours worked. Students in field placements must take a zero-credit seminar.
d. Journals and Law Reviews
The work completed for Law Reviews and Journals constitutes “other academic activities,” as designed by ABA Standard 310. Credit will be awarded only if the student completes at least 42.5 hours of work per credit hour, as evaluated by a faculty advisor to the publication. Students must log all hours worked, even after the 42.5 hour per credit hour threshold is satisfied.
2. Credit Hour Maximum Per Semester
During Fall and Spring semesters: Full-time students at the School of Law are allowed to enroll in a maximum of sixteen (16) credit hours. Students may petition to take up to 17 credits.
During Summer session: Students are allowed to enroll in a maximum of seven (7) credit hours without approval.
Any student with an irregular and/or overload schedule must obtain the permission of the Vice Dean for Academic Affairs.
3. Limitation on Study Outside Classroom
Sixty-five (65) credits of the eighty-eight (88) credits required for the J.D. degree must be regularly scheduled classes at the law school. Transfer credits in "regularly scheduled courses" taken at another law school are counted.
ABA Standard 311 mandates that JD students have at least 64 credits of "courses that require attendance in regularly scheduled classroom sessions or direct faculty instruction.”
4. Online Course Enrollment (Limitation on Distance Education)
A course is a “distance education course” if the students are “separated from all faculty members for more than one-third of the instruction and the instruction involves the use of technology to support regular and substantive interaction between the students and all faculty members, either synchronously or asynchronously.” Pursuant to ABA Standard 306, students may earn up to 50% of their credit hours towards the J.D. through distance education courses.
Please note that some state bar admissions impose tighter restrictions on distance education courses. Notably, New York restricts students to only 15 credits of distance education courses.
