carnegie unit

Definition

A measure of instructional time equating one credit hour to 120 hours of student work, standardizing education through the magic of Victorian-era timekeeping. Because learning definitely happens in neat hourly blocks.

Example Usage

The university requires 120 Carnegie units for a bachelor's degree, regardless of whether students actually learned anything in those hours.

Origin

Established by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 1906

Fun Fact

Originally created to determine teacher pension eligibility, not to measure learning outcomes—and it shows.

Source: Accreditation standards and credit hour policy

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