Individual Study Definitions and Procedures
Effective Date: July 1, 2003
Revised Date: September 11, 2019
Definition: Individual Study is a delivery mode for courses, listed in the official catalog, needed
for a student’s progress toward graduation.
Description: Students arrange individual study courses through departments. A learning
contract (attached) is developed and approved by the department chair, and the chair assigns a
faculty member to teach the course within the faculty workload guidelines of SUU policy 6.27.
The student taking the course through individual study must comply with SUU policy 6.3.
Procedure for Learning Contract:
1. If a student needs a course for graduation and a scheduling or other conflict necessitates
that the student complete the course through individual study, the student will obtain a learning
contract from the appropriate department.
2. The learning contract will be completed and submitted to the department chair.
3. The chair will complete the chair’s portion of the contract: (1) approve or disapprove the
course, (2) assign an instructor to teach the course and have the instructor sign the form, (3) add
any other requirements, (4) sign the contract and forward it to the Registrar’s Office. (Give a
copy to the instructor, the student, and your department.)
4. The Registrar’s staff registers the student in the course, and sends the form to the
Cashier’s Office.
5. The student pays the course fee at the cashier’s office after the registration takes place.
6. The student has one semester to complete the course, just like another course offered for
a semester.
Procedure for Faculty Contract
The department chair/division head and dean will process the faculty payment for the course:
Prepare and process faculty special appointment contract or overload contract with proper
signatures – In addition to tuition and fees, a course fee of $67 per credit hour will be assessed
($50 per credit hour to be paid as compensation to the faculty member, $12 per credit hour for
faculty benefits, and $5 per credit hour to cover administrative costs—to be deposited into a
college/school assigned non-appropriated account.)
