Personal Experiences,Study, Learning Blog of Abu Rashid aka Harun

50 contact minutes is considered as one credit hour
http://hawkcentral.sju.edu/link/portal/16125/16171/Article/565/Academic-Credit-Hour-Policy

Federal Definition of a Unit of Credit

Federal regulations regarding the definition and assignment of credit hours under Section 600.2 and 600.24(f) of the Higher Education Opportunity Act now state, in part, that a unit of credit is:

"An amount of work represented in intended learning outcomes and verified by evidence of student achievement that is an institutionally established equivalency that reasonably approximates not less than:

    One hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction and a minimum of two hours of out-of-class student work each week for approximately ... ten to twelve weeks for one quarter hour of credit or the equivalent amount of work over a different period of time; or
    At least an equivalent amount of work as required in paragraph (1) of this definition for other academic activities as established by the institution, including laboratory work, internships, practica, studio work, and other academic work leading to the award of credit hours
https://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/registrar/faculty/unit-of-credit

A contact hour includes any lecture or lab time when the professor is teaching the student or coaching the student while they apply the course information to an activity. Regardless of the duration of the course (i.e. a short semester like summer or intersession) and depending on the state or jurisdiction, a semester credit hour (SCH) is 15-16 contact hours per semester. Most college and university courses are 3 Semester Credit Hours (SCH) or 45-48 contact hours, so they usually meet for three hours per week over a 15-week semester.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Course_credit
students are generally expected to spend three hours outside class studying and doing homework for every hour spent in class,[1] 15 SCH is the typical full course load, although many colleges consider 12 SCH a minimum full-time load for financial aid and other purposes.
for laboratory and studio courses as well as physical education courses, internships and practical is usually less than for lectures - typically one credit for every two to three hours spent in lab or studio, depending on the amount of actual instruction necessary prior to lab.

What is the difference between Conference, Seminar, Symposium & Workshop?
Very good explanation is given here:
http://www.researchgate.net/post/What_is_the_difference_between_Conference_Seminar_Symposium_Workshop

In summary,
seminar - usually one speaker gives a lecture and there may be a short question answer session.

Symposium - more than one speaker speaks on a given topic.

workshop - should be some hands on exercises along with lectures.

conference - big gathering of people with multiple sessin with multiple speaker.

congress - bigger than conference!

Endowed Chairs
Nowadays, the expression "endowed chair" is used to mean an academic position supported by the earnings from invested funds. Endowed chairs allow a university to recruit internationally for outstanding teaching and research faculty beyond the funding provided by legislative appropriation.

For example, At Michigan State University, an endowed chair provides salary and fringe benefits for the recipient and such support staff, travel, and other expenses as the endowment may permit in perpetuity. Such independent financing assures both the university and the faculty member of stability and continuity.

The custom of endowing an academic chair originated in 16th-century England with just that—a chair. In those days, commoners sat on stools or wooden benches; the gentry sat on cushions. A chair, complete with arms, legs, and a back, was a valuable piece of furniture and an appropriate reward for a teacher who had reached the rank of professor.

http://cvm.msu.edu/research/endowed-chairs

Endowed Professorships

An endowed professorship is an honor bestowed by a university on a faculty member who has earned great respect in an academic discipline. It also serves as a magnet for talented young faculty members and residents who want to work with the honoree
@so endowed professorship is just honor.Howerver sometimes endowed professors mean they are funded by endowment fund like endowed chair. In this case,endowed chair and professorship are kind of synonymous.
http://cvm.msu.edu/research/endowed-chairs
However, in other cases, endowment professorship is funded by endowment fund but of lessear amount fund. Whereas endowed chair has higher amount of endowed fund.
http://policy.umn.edu/education/endowedchairs



Benefits of endowment chair for university,faculty,study,business organisations
http://www.utdallas.edu/chairs/about/endowed research professor chair
>>


endowed chair and distinguished professorship - a nice presentation slides highlighting the features:
https://medschool.ucsf.edu/sites/medschool.ucsf.edu/files/documents/Endowed%20Chairs%20Orientation.pdf
Nice briefing:

Chaired positions are generally endowed, in that the money provided for the salary, and some other benefits (e.g., a dedicated assistant) or increased research funds comes from the interest on principal donated by the person or people the chair is named after, which is part of the school's overall endowment (UC San Diego has a more broad definition, as does Wikipedia). Being named to a chair is a prestigious award, and in many cases it is a lifetime (or at least, until retirement) position. Some chaired positions are given on a rotating basis (e.g., for five years), but nonetheless it is prestigious to be named to an endowed chair.

While it is not strictly true that professors in chaired positions are paid more (because in most cases pay is negotiable), because universities use a combination of pay and incentives such as an endowed chair to lure highly sought-after candidates, the pay is probably on average higher than the average non-chaired full professor would have at the same institution and department.

Finally, some schools use chairs at the university level (versus the departmental or school level) that they dole out throughout the university. The positions can therefore be used as an enabler for some departments with less money to attract particularly important faculty members that they might not have had an opportunity to attract otherwise.

For a specific example of the policy for endowed chairs at one university (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), see here.
http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12607/what-is-an-endowed-chair-exactly-how-does-it-compare-to-a-normal-position

Sl no	Position	Degree	Experience	Paper	Increment
	Lecturer	BSc Eng	0	0	1 paper per year
	Senior Lecturer	MSc Eng	1 year	1	1 paper per year
	Assistant Professor	PhD	0	2	3 papers per year
	Senior Assistant Professor	PhD	2 years as Assistant Prof	8	3 papers per year
	Associate Professor	PhD	4 years as Assistant Professor and altogether 7 years of active teaching experience	24	6 papers per year
	Senior Associate Professor	PhD	2 years as Associate Professor and altogether 9 years of active teaching experience	36	6 papers per year
	Professor	PhD	4 years as Associate Professor and altogether 11 years of active teaching experience	48	9 papers per year

Prof. Dr. A.K.M. Sadrul Islam	70
Prof. Dr. Md. Anayet Ullah Patwari	65