- Credits (not grades) earned at another institution may be accepted at Northwestern subject to review and approval by the Registrar.
- The previously attended institution must be recognized by regional, national, professional, or specialized accrediting bodies or, for foreign institutions, be recognized by their country’s ministry of education. The
- For non-accredited institutions or institutions not recognized by their country’s ministry of education, the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, in consultation with the Registrar, shall determine, through the established credit transfer agreement process, which non-accredited/non-recognized institutions are to be recognized as acceptable for transfer of credit by establishing credit transfer agreements with these schools. If a credit transfer agreement is established, its purpose is for determining transferability and applicability of credits for new incoming students who have previously taken coursework at a non-accredited/non-recognized institution.
- Transfer work from non-accredited institutions not recognized by a credit transfer agreement or foreign institutions not recognized by their country’s ministry of education will not be accepted.
- Transfer work from within the time period of the 5 years preceding the date an institution is accredited or credit transfer agreement is established may also be accepted.
- European institutions are standardizing units of academic credit under the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS). Since international students may come from Europe to Northwestern and since many Northwestern undergraduate students study abroad at some point during their academic careers, it is important to standardize transfer of credit.
- The National Council on the Evaluation of Foreign Academic Credentials has provided the following information on the ECTS system:
"ECTS credit has the following characteristics: - One ECTS credit represents between 24 and 30 hours.
- ECTS credits are awarded only upon the completion of work and the assessment of that work.
- Work may be completed through a variety of methods and is not expressed solely in terms of contact hours.
“Council recommendation: “One ECTS credit is comparable to one half (.50) semester credit [.75 quarter credit] at a regionally accredited post-secondary institution in the United States." - This conversion rate for credits transferred from Europe is consistent with practice at many colleague American institutions.
- Two (2) ECTS credits are equivalent to one (1) Northwestern credit.
- Course work with grades of C- or higher is considered transferable to Northwestern, but applicability of those credits is dependent upon the student’s chosen academic program at Northwestern (some Northwestern academic departments/schools require an even higher grade such as C).
- Credits taken at other institutions considered to be upper level at University of Northwestern will be included in the 40-credit upper-level requirement for graduation.
- Transfer students on probation at the transfer institution are admitted as transitional students.
- For purposes of administering the proportional core curriculum requirement, class standing of transfer students is based on the total of transferable credits from all colleges and universities previously attended and credits awarded from Northwestern through credit by exam. Transfer work registered for at another institution, and credit by exam taken after initial matriculation (i.e., admitted, enrolled, and attending) is not counted.
- In the core curriculum, if a transfer course(s) satisfies the course intent of a particular category, then no additional credits will be required in that category. The total number of credits required for graduation is still a minimum of 125 credits.
- University of Northwestern does accept credit from institutions that is based on a test-out or similar exam taken at such institutions as long as the work meets normal transfer requirements, i.e., C- or higher.
- University of Northwestern does not accept prior learning credits from other institutions, nor does the traditional undergraduate program award credits for prior learning experiences.
- Graduate-level credits from accredited institutions are also allowed to apply towards undergraduate work, subject to the approval of the department/school whose course work is to be covered by the transferred credits. If the student goes on to earn a graduate degree at Northwestern, they will not be able to apply that course work to their graduate degree (the work cannot count towards two different degrees). Transfer credit is accepted only for courses in which a grade of C- or better is earned.
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