The Challenges of Continuing Education: What You Need to Know Before Enrolling

Continuing education can be an excellent way to prepare for a new job, acquire important new skills, or simply prove that you’re as sharp as ever. However, going back to school can be a significant challenge, especially when you have a job, a mortgage, and kids. That’s why it’s essential not to go into continuing education blind. Before enrolling in a program at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), you need to understand the challenges that lie ahead and develop strategies to deal with them.

In this article, we’ll outline some of the most significant challenges that students face when pursuing continuing education. We’ll explain UTSA’s academic and non-academic policies and describe what can go wrong if those policies are violated. We’ll also provide tips on how to avoid these problems and succeed in your academic pursuits.

Academics

Your first concern as a student will be academics. Whether you’re pursuing a degree or certificate, you must complete your coursework successfully. UTSA’s Professional and Continuing Education (PaCE) program offers degrees and certifications in various fields such as Business Communication, Healthcare, IT Security, Legal Studies, Teacher Development Tests Preparation Web Designing and Coding Bootcamps.

Different programs have different requirements; however, all instructors maintain course policies designed to ensure that students obtain their qualifications by demonstrating their expertise in the subject matter truly. Therefore gaining credentials is no walk in the park.

Degree and Certification Requirements

The most challenging programs are those leading to actual degrees since they require more course hours than certification programs do. For instance:

• A Bachelor’s Degree in Communication requires 120 coursework hours:
– 42 core courses hours
– 42 major courses hours
– Six language acquisition hours
– Thirty elective credit hours

• The Business Degree specializing in Cyber Security also needs 120 coursework hours with:
– Forty-two core course hours
– Forty-five to 51 “business-common body of knowledge” course hours
– Thirty-three business major course hours

All UTSA degrees are subject to academic standards, and the most crucial is the grade point average (GPA) requirement. To maintain good academic standing in UTSA, you must maintain a 2.0 cumulative GPA. You may be put on probation or even face dismissal if you fail to meet this requirement.

Although certification programs entail fewer hours than degree programs do, they still require dedication and persistence to complete. The Medical Billing and Coding Specialist Training program, for instance, runs for six months with classes held twice a week that last three hours each. Although PaCE doesn’t publish GPA requirements for certification programs, expect instructors to hold students to high standards.

Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy

If you’re receiving financial aid for your continuing education degree or certification at UTSA, there’s an additional set of academic standards you need to meet satisfactorily called Satisfactory Academic Progress policy (SAP). Failure to achieve these criteria while receiving government funds can lead to the loss of grants and loan money.

The University’s One Stop enrollment program evaluates students’ progress after each semester, including summer school. Your progress is evaluated based on three criteria:

• A 2.0 cumulative GPA requirement

• Attaining 67% of all attempted courses per semester—failures affect this criterion.

• Completing your degree or certificate within 150% of the published credit hours required by your specific educational pursuit.

Failure to achieve any of these SAP standards results in terminating your financial aid immediately; although appeals may be made on extenuating circumstances bases, success isn’t guaranteed.

Attendance Policies and Issues involving Academic Honesty

As a student pursuing continuing education at UTSA, attendance policies may vary among individual instructors. Overreliance on some courses’ attendance policy may deprive you of the minimum knowledge expected to complete the course.

Academic honesty is also a crucial challenge when pursuing continuing education. Some instructors institute increasingly restrictive policies and harsher penalties for offenders caught violating academic integrity requirements. Before enrolling in any program, make sure that you understand UTSA’s policies on cheating, plagiarism, or other violations of academic integrity.

Disciplinary Misconduct Policies

Students pursuing continuing education must adhere to UTSA’s guidelines governing community members’ behavior. The student code of conduct lists over 30 rules and regulations covering different aspects such as gambling, hazing, drug possession, unauthorized or illegal alcohol consumption, firearms possession theft, physical assault, and vandalism.

Online classes are available that may be taken even if students reside outside Texas; however, good conduct expectations apply equally to online students as they do for those physically present on campus. Always behave professionally and avoid disruptive behaviors during web conferences and class meetings.

Don’t forget about Title IX’s influence on illegal sexual misconduct off-campus – it remains a violation of school policy – and can trigger forfeiture of your continuing education credentials eligibility while putting criminal charges against you.

Conclusion

Although going back to school can be exciting as well as enriching to pursue career advancement opportunities or demonstrate intellectual capability; expect challenges along the way. Schools like UTSA maintain academic standards and good community behavior guidelines. These policies should be fully understood before enrollment—the Spodek Law firm offers legal representation for CE students facing academic difficulties. Contact us Toll-Free at 212-300-5196 if you face such problems today.