Creating New Transfer Credit Articulations

Per AACRAO transfer articulation guidance and standards, as well as UNC Policy 400.1.5.3 [R], transfer courses should only be required to match 70% of the content of an ECU course to be considered for equivalency.

• No course can be required to meet 100% of an ECU course’s content.

What Makes a Course Equivalent?

Accreditation

• The course must have been completed at an institutionally accredited college or university.
  • More information about Institutional Accreditation can be found under the Department of Education.

Course Content

• The transfer course must share at least 70% of the ECU course’s content.
  • The transfer course can share more than 70% of the content with an ECU course.
  • The transfer course cannot be required to meet more than 70% of the ECU course content.
• The transfer course must be college-level.
  • It cannot be a developmental/refresher or continuing education course.
• If the transfer course is from a community college:
  • Any course labelled as General Education at the community college should transfer, whether directly or as 1XXX/2XXX elective credit.
  • Any course labelled as technical/vocational (or not for college transfer) may transfer at the discretion of the department.
    • If the course is from an out of state community college, departments should use the North Carolina Community College System as a guide for consideration.

Credit Level

• Historically, credit levels indicate complexity and level of instruction within a course.

ECU Undergraduate Catalog Classification

• At ECU, students cannot select courses more than one classification level above their own classification; however, it is important to recognize General Education courses could be labelled as 1000, 2000, or 3000.
• AACRAO Best Practice: “Transfer 100- and 200- level coursework at the same level, articulate 200- and 300- level coursework when content and rigor is the same, and 300- and 400- level when possible” (Guide to Best Practices, 2017).

Hours

• A new transfer credit articulation must match the minimum semester hours the course is assigned at ECU.

Quarter to Semester Conversions (divide by 1.5)

Trimester to Semester Conversions

• • Unless otherwise noted on the transcript key, trimester hours should be directly equivalent to semester hours.
• Transfer courses where the hours are less than the ECU course cannot be articulated as equivalent.
  • Those courses can, however, be substituted by petition with approval of department.
• Transfer courses where the hours are more than the ECU course will get additional elective credit.
  • For example: North Carolina Community Colleges offer MAT 171: Precalculus Algebra, which is 4 credit hours. Its ECU equivalent, MATH 1065, is 3 credit hours. Students who transfer MAT 171 with a “C-” or higher will receive both MATH 1065 and MATH 1XXX to total the 4 transferable hours.

Course Delivery

• Course articulation decisions should not be based on whether a course is delivered face-to-face, hybrid, or fully online.
  • All transfer courses should be treated the same, with the review for articulation based on content and not delivery.
  • The exception to this would be if a particular major/program has additional accreditation stipulations. 

Grade

• ECU accepts any transferable course where the student earned a “C-” or higher.
  • Majors may have a higher requirement for a course’s equivalent, which is okay.
  • Articulations cannot be based on the grade a student earned in the course.

Instruction

• Transfer articulations cannot be based on the textbook the transfer course utilized.
• Transfer articulations cannot be based on an individual professor or instructor.
• Transfer articulations cannot be based on an individual professor/instructor or department’s opinions of the transfer institution.