Transfer of Credits

Transfer of Credits

The Registrar supervises the evaluation of all transfer credits and the awarding of credit-by-examination. This involves overseeing decisions made by all Northwestern transcript evaluators. Additionally, the Registrar confers with deans, department chairs/assistant deans, program managers/directors and the Provost | Senior Vice-President for Academic Affairs as needed in decisions pertaining to the approval of transfer credits.

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, or for non-accredited institutions or foreign institutions not recognized by their country’s ministry of education, have an established credit transfer agreement with University of Northwestern – St. Paul.

For non-accredited institutions or institutions not recognized by their country’s ministry of education, the Provost | 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. 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 or foreign institutions not recognized by their country’s ministry of education or not recognized by a credit transfer agreement, 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 have standardized 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. Based on information concerning ECTS characteristics and practices at many colleague American institutions, Northwestern has established that one ECTS credit is comparable to one half (.50) semester credits.

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 undergraduate 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 bachelor’s degree requirement for graduation.

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 allowed to apply towards undergraduate requirements. If applied toward the student's major(s) or minor(s), then it is subject to the approval of the department/school whose course work is to be covered by the transferred credits. Transfer credit is accepted only for courses in which a grade of C- or better is earned.

For students who have a transcript from a foreign academic institution (except most institutions in Canada), they need to send an official foreign transcript (along with an English translation of the transcript if not already in English) to a recognized professional credential evaluator. As long as UNW directly receives a professional credential evaluator report that lists all courses taken at the foreign institution, U.S. grade equivalency, and U.S. semester credit equivalency, then the student does not need to provide an additional official foreign transcript to UNW. For information about recognized professional credential evaluators, contact UNW Admissions or the Registrar’s Office.

Rev March 26, 2018