---
kind: "section"
citation: "38 C.F.R. § 21.5800"
title: "38"
number: "21.5800"
heading: "Courses."
url: "https://uscodex.org/cfr/38/21.5800"
---

# §21.5800. Courses.

- (a) **Courses permitted.** An individual may receive educational assistance and subsistence allowance only while receiving instruction in a postsecondary course offered at any institution in the United States (including the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands) that is accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency or association or by an accrediting agency or association recognized by the Secretary of Education.
- (b) **Courses precluded.** An individual shall receive neither educational assistance nor subsistence allowance while pursuing any of the following courses:
  - (1) A course offered at the secondary level or below;
  - (2) A course offered by an institution located outside the United States (except in Guam, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands);
  - (3) A course offered by a nonaccredited institution; and
  - (4) **Courses which do not require the student to receive instruction at the institution.** These include—
    - (i) Correspondence courses,
    - (ii) **Combination correspondence—** residence courses, and
    - (iii) **Courses offered through independent study.**

## Notes

### Authority

Authority: 10 U.S.C. ch. 107; 38 U.S.C. 501(a), 3695, 5101, 5113, 5303A; 42 U.S.C. 2000; sec. 901, Pub. L. 96-342, 94 Stat. 1111-1114, unless otherwise noted.

### Source

Source: 51 FR 27026, July 29, 1986, unless otherwise noted.