Transfer of Credit in Education: Evaluating Applicability & Currency - Essay Sample

Introduction

The idea of transfer of credit in colleges, training institutions and universities is the measurement of compared to prior learning or training of skills of examinations, courses, or experiential units versus the current existing offerings of a university or college or any other learning institution by evaluating the applicability and the currency of the credit claims and petitions. Transfer of credits can allow a scholar to move attendance from one institution to another, in such a way that the sources of credit transfer are interpreted and moved accordingly per course and appropriate relevance. In normal circumstances, a student or a learner is required to make an official petition or request for transfer credit, except situation where there are transfer specified arrangements describing the acceptance of credit influenced by several other factors like institution policy upon dual registration or other types of a partnership between the education providers (Taylor 73).

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In a nutshell, Credit Transfer is the reception of prior skills of learning signified in the credits applied or the course units or and articulated by denoting on a student's academic transcript. Transferring the courses are usually not calculated into the GPA of the new joining institution of learning. Nevertheless, these academic units may be documented depending on the attending institution to demonstrate the degree of performance in the course unit transferred, alongside other qualities, for example, as when the subject course was taken.

When the attending institution or college determines if and how many credit transfers to apply with a person's diploma or degree plan, that transfer will after that appear on their official academic transcript of the new institution, usually, the grades are not involved with the credit transfer procedure, so, therefore, they are not calculated as part to form the grade point average (GPA). Transfer of credit generally comprises the formal course work. Experiential learning credits, credit by examinations, and external training credits usually are considered as credit transfer.

Colleges and Universities which lack college credits transferring for students affect student success in many ways. It is a great matter and has contributed to the ratings of most college admission and excellence framework. Firstly, one of the most regularly advertised advantages of various community colleges is that they can save families and their learners a lot of financial constraints; taking for example that one can transfer all their credits, it, therefore, means that students will speed their education journey and finish whatever diploma or degree plans they have. Eventually, they will be capable of pursuing advanced professional or education studies or other exiting entry-level workplace careers (Stevens 69). Despite these expectations, this is normally not what happens in these colleges. The board of examiners and various college policymakers have not paid enough attention to what happens to these students whenever they transfer.

Nobody follows or keep track of whether or not these students' credits get successfully transferred, and the level of accomplishment to which they can successfully reach in a four-year learning environment. Still, fundamental forces and pressures of change on the government higher education scheme, such as the demand for performance, public's lack of trust in education, disruptive innovation, state funding shortfalls, online education providers, increasing state demands for greater accountability, and cost-efficiency in government higher education rivalry from for-profit and needs us to pay closer consideration to this (Li et al. 60). Most students permanently lose a substantial number of credits through the credit transfer process mainly due to the reasons mentioned above, post-secondary processes and systems are not integrated or aligned to permit for seamless and transparent evolution from one level of education to the next one as a student pursues further educational achievements. Often, credits transfers are acknowledged as electives and not primarily in the central area of study in which the learner has a strong desire to focus. Some of the credits gotten in the fundamental subjects, like languages, for example, English, may fail to be transferred and get accepted to specific colleges because of varying departmental requirements.

In other colleges, students remain in a state of confusion as they are not sure of what they should study because the career advisement and student counsellors of such academic institutions have not done a predominantly good work of directing and giving them recommendations on the options they choose. Furthermore, many universities have not stated clearly about what subjects students need to take at community colleges, as program necessities change from one university department to another, and may also be subjected to the discretion of diverse faculties or schools (Stevens 69). When colleges lack an adequately defined structure, clear directions to lead students across every single transition along with the schooling range, and carefully and advising intrusively at significant milestones, the current system of education will continue to flop many of our students across many colleges. This old fashioned policies and systems of education that do not permit credit transfer is failing and demoralizing many learners who already have acquired their qualifications in one institution and wishes to advance it in a different institution.

According to a recent study, the average number of Alamo College's two-year diploma graduate receives 80 credits at college-level, while those scholars pursuing associate's degree needs only 55 credits (Angelucci 143). Therefore, it means that students stay in schools for a longer duration than what is necessary; in fact, it takes full-time students one year longer, and for part-time students, they spend two more years at college, which consists of the largest unit of their degree students. Additionally, the Alamo Colleges have courses with majors that are not in most cases compatible with any university sophomore and major freshman requirements, therefore the college students generally miss up to 25 in percentage of their credits whenever they apply for a transfer to any four-year Institutions of Higher Education from the Alamo Colleges (Angelucci 124).

Texas Public Universities do not consider the scholars' community college majors but focus only on the course units they have taken. Hence, to reduce such losses incurred during such credit transfers, many universities or colleges do advise students to follow the specific university's course guidelines, which describe the course units that amount towards a specified degree or diploma. Every university or college has different requirements for their version of the major (Angelucci 76). Thus, rather than pursuing a major, most students are forced to take a specified sequence of courses that their anticipated university or college makes it a mandatory requirement. As a result of having majors, the accrediting agency of Alamo Colleges, abbreviated SACSCOC, requires all of these courses to include an articulate form of coursework inside the degree program while demanding that the learning results be measured. This approach locks in such courses and therefore eliminates flexibility and gives limited options for Alamo College students. The outcome of such a situation is that whenever scholars transfer, they lose credits. It, therefore, explains why 55 percent of Alamo College scholars prefer not to declare their majors until their credit transfers are approved so that they can minimize the loss of credits (Angelucci 165). In this ear, universities that remain rigid in accepting credit transfers inflict much unnecessary pain, redundancy and wastage of both time and resources to both these students and their families.

Works Cited

Angelucci, Manuela. "Conditional Cash Transfer Programs, Credit Constraints, And Migration." LABOUR 26.1 (2011): 124-136. Web.

Li, Huikang et al. "The Establishment of Academic Credit Accumulation and Transfer System: A Case Study of Shanghai Academic Credit Transfer and Accumulation Bank for Lifelong Education." Asian Association of Open Universities Journal 8.1 (2013): 61-70. Web.

Stevens, Newton. "From Community College to University: Transfer Students and Transfer Credit as Opportunities for Foreign Language Departments at Research Universities." ADFL Bulletin 44.2 (2018): 69-80. Web.

Taylor, Jason L. "Reverse Credit Transfer: Recognizing And Measuring Transfer Student Success." New Directions for Institutional Research 2016.170 (2016): 73-86. Web.