Policy Number
Reason for Policy
This policy outlines the University's position on undergraduate and graduate class size.
Entities Affected
All university faculty, staff, and students.
Responsible Office
For questions about this policy, please contact the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost: (541) 346-3186, provost@uoregon.edu
Website Address
Enactment & Revision History
22 October 2025 – Technical changes by Office of University Secretary: Policy renumbered from OUS-13 to II.01.02 (current taxonomy) and converted to current policy format (Reason for Policy and Entities Affected fields completed)
01 July 2014 - Became a UO policy by operation of law
25 April 1962 - Adopted by the SBHE
Policy
Unless a compelling educational reason exists, no lower division section enrolling fewer than ten students will be continued. The responsibility for determining whether a compelling educational reason exists for a particular class will be exercised by the institutional executives through their instructional deans. At the upper division level, regular class sections enrolling fewer than ten students will be discouraged. It is recognized, nonetheless, that upper division electives and required sequences in specialized curricula may make it necessary to offer classes below the standard of ten students at the upper division level in more numerous instances than at the lower division level. Seminars, thesis, and reading and conference offerings are not to be construed as regular classes for purposes of this standard.
Because of the individualized nature of graduate study, no specific standard related to class size is proposed at the post-baccalaureate level.