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Earning Credits

A credit is a unit of the curriculum, and students earn 1 credit for every 15 hours of class time per semester (or 30 hours per semester for time spent on experiments, exercises, or practical courses).

Required credits to earn a Bachelor’s degree are as follow.

  • The College of Law, the College of Education, and the College of Pharmacy: at least 150 credits
  • The College of Medicine and the College of Dentistry: at least 160 credits (the College of Nursing: 140 credits)
  • Other colleges: at least 140 credits
  • Department of Medicine and Department of Dentistry at the College of Natural Science: at least 72 credits.
In accordance with the revised Administrative Guide of PNU

which applies to students who entered PNU in 2001 or later, students must acquire at least 132 credits to earn a Bachelor’s degree, at least 142 credits for the College of Law, at least 137 credit for the College of Education, at least 152 credits for the Department of Pharmacy at the College of Pharmacy, at least 153 credits for the Department of Pharmaceutics at the College of Pharmacy, at least 174 credits for the Department of Medicine at the College of Medicine, at least 144 credits for the College of Nursing, at least 160 credits for the College of Dentistry, and at least 74 credits for the Department of Medicine and the Department of Dentistry at the College of Natural Science.

Credits Required per Semester

The number of credits required per semester is as follows.

  • College of Humanities, College of Social Sciences, College of Natural Sciences (except Department of Medicine and Department of Dentistry), College of Engineering, College of Business, College of Human Ecology, and College of Arts: 18 to 21 credits
  • College of Law, College of Education, and College of Pharmacy: 18 to 23 credits
  • Department of Medicine and Department of Dentistry at College of Natural Science as well as College of Medicine and College of Dentistry at : 20 to 24 credits
  • Students who achieved a GPA greater than 3.50 in the previous semester can acquire up to 24 credits
  • Students acquire credit for a course when they receive a grade of Level D or higher.

Application of Curriculum when there’s changes in students status

Apply the new curriculum when the student re-enrolled to the school due to leave of absence or re-addmission

How to Make up for a Shortage of Credits

If the curriculum is modified while a student is enrolled in a degree program, the student is required to complete the courses specified in the new educational curriculum (the curriculum that is valid during the final year of his or her program). If the number of credits for a degree program is increased due to the new curriculum, students are required to check the credits that they have acquired by category of the previous curriculum. And when there is a shortage of credits, students are required to take additional credits by category, in accordance with the new curriculum.

How to Delete Acquired Credits (2001 Curriculum)

  1. 1Students who have received a C˚ or lower may delete the related credit. Students may delete the related credit for a C+ only if the class was taken before the 1st semester in 2001.
  2. 2Students can apply for the deletion of a credit at any time, but credits will not be deleted for students who are on a leave of absence. Students can delete a credit of the previous semester after they have completed 1/3 of the current semester.
  3. 3When students take the same course twice and do not delete one of the two credits, the credits are regarded as overlapped credits at time of graduation. Students are required to apply for deletion of credit for overlapped courses. Students can choose to keep the grade from either course.
  4. 4Students are recommended to make decisions carefully regarding the deletion of credits, as they cannot graduate with a shortage of credits.
  5. 5Students are allowed to delete credits for courses they have dropped (W).

Prohibition for Overlapped Credit Acquisition (2001 curriculum)

When students re-take a subject in which they have already received a C+ or higher, the newer grade will not be regarded as valid. However, C+ grades that were acquired prior to the first semester in 2001 are excluded.

Re-completing Courses System

  • Students who have received a grade of D+ (C+ for graduate students) or lower may re-take the course. The grade received for a repeated course will be valid.
  • Grades awarded for repeated courses cannot be higher than B+ (excluding graduate students), with the exception of Practical English and Practical Computing.
  • When selecting a course to be retaken, the previously recorded grade will be automatically deleted.

Prohibition for Overlapped Credit Acquisition (From 2005 curriculum)

When students re-take a subject in which they have already received a C0 or higher grads again, the newer grade will not be regarded as valid.

Acquisition of credits for general elective courses (optional courses)

Students are required to take the general elective courses that are required, according to the curriculum of each department. Students cannot take the general elective courses established by their department (excluding Korean, Korean Composition, and Foreign Language Courses).