VSU’s teaching load is as follows:

  • For tenured and tenure-track academic year (fall/spring) faculty: no more than 24 credit hours, 24 contact hours, or equivalent per academic year; guidelines for maximum number of course preparations per term and maximum/minimum class sizes should correspond to program policy.[1]
  • For non-tenure track academic year (fall/spring) faculty: no more than 30 credit hours, 30 contact hours, or equivalent per academic year; guidelines for maximum number of course preparations per term and maximum/minimum class sizes should correspond to program policy.
  • For tenured and tenure-track fiscal year (12 month) faculty: no more than 36 credit hours, 36 contact hours, or equivalent per year; guidelines for maximum number of course preparations per term and maximum/minimum class sizes should correspond to program policy.
  • For non-tenure track fiscal year (12 month) faculty: no more than 45 credit hours or 45 contact hours or equivalent per year; guidelines for maximum number of course preparations per term and maximum/minimum class sizes should correspond to program policy.

This teaching load assumes that faculty will be able to fulfill the other expectations required in their promotion and tenure documents, their annual evaluations, or in their position descriptions. The colleges and the library, working in concert with their faculty in their various academic programs, will determine variations from this load by the procedures listed in the document and in the unit documents (see full policy).


[1] For credit and contact hour guidelines, consult https://www.valdosta.edu/academics/academic-affairs/documents/credit-contact-guidelines.pdf. Furthermore, for academic year faculty (fall/spring), summer is an additional term operating under different guidelines.

Last updated March 24, 2022.