Abstract

An Excess Credit Hour policy "assesses a tuition surcharge for any credits taken beyond a predetermined threshold" (Smith, 2017, para. 1). In 2009, the State of Florida implemented legislation on excess credit hours at four-year public institutions, Fla. Stat. § 1009.286 (State of Florida, 2012). Legislation found under title forty-eight (XLVIII) of the K-20 Education Code, Fla. Stat. § 1009.286, relating to "Educational Scholarships, Fees, and Financial Assistance," discussed the "intent of the Legislature to encourage each undergraduate student who enrolls in a state university to complete the student's respective baccalaureate degree program in the most efficient way possible…" (State of Florida, 2018, para. 1). Throughout the duration of the policy, various entities were deficient in monitoring or delivering an assessment of this legislation to determine its effectiveness. Minimal legislative follow up and a small number of empirical studies have tried to confirm the proficiency of this policy in the State of Florida (Carvajal, 2021; State of Florida, 2018). A lack of empirical research exists regarding the relationship between first time-in-college students (FTIC) in the mechanical and aerospace engineering disciplines at a Large Metropolitan University (LMU) and the Excess Credit Hour Surcharge policy's effect on student demographics and baccalaureate degree completion. This quantitative study will use pre-existing data to analyze the complex relationship between variables in collaboration with descriptive statistics. The data collection methods will report specific data points and demographics of students in mechanical and aerospace engineering at LMU. Findings from this study will provide further insight into the implementation of this policy and impart confirmation regarding its objective of increasing graduation rates while attempting to minimize credit hour utilization among students at State of Florida universities.

Notes

If this is your thesis or dissertation, and want to learn how to access it or for more information about readership statistics, contact us at STARS@ucf.edu

Graduation Date

2022

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Cox, Thomas

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

College

College of Community Innovation and Education

Department

Educational Leadership and Higher Education

Degree Program

Educational Leadership; Higher Education Track

Identifier

CFE0009179; DP0026775

URL

https://purls.library.ucf.edu/go/DP0026775

Language

English

Release Date

August 2022

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

Download

Share

COinS