Credit Transfer

Credit Transfer

The Credit Transfer System practice is very common in countries mostly all over the world.

Introduction :

For education which becomes more standardized is important to understand the criteria for estimating a student’s course work. How long is a credit hour? How many credit hours per quarter, semester, or year are typically assigned at different institutions? What is the length of the academic year at different schools, colleges, universities and other Institutions? , What are the differences between auditorium, lecture, and notional hours? All of this information is necessary often to create a common ground for the transfer of credits from one institution to another.

Technical Council Credit Transfer Framework (TCCTF)

It is used in the Courses of Technical Institute of Management & Information Technology to monitor, record and reward passage through a course and to facilitate movement between courses and institutions. One credit is equivalent to 20 notional hours of study (contact time and allocation for self-study). For example, any course have 300 estimated study hours would be worth 15 credits, and any course of 600 estimated study hours would be worth 30 credits. A full academic year is worth 60 credits.

Credits are associated with a level at which the learning took place. In our courses , this will be one of Levels 1 to 8 on the Framework for Technical Council Qualification Framework (TCQF), representing the first, second and third year of a bachelor's degree (levels 4 – 6), master's level (level 7) and doctoral level (level 8) an ordinary bachelor's degree requires 180 credits with 60 at level 6; a foundation degree requires 120 credits with 60 at level 5; an integrated master's degree requires 120 credits with 60 at level 7, Degrees in medicine, dentistry and veterinary science are not normally credit rated, nor are PhDs or master's degrees by research.

» FTL - Fast track Learning.

» EPL - Experience Prior Learning.

» RPL - Recognition of Prior Learning.

» WIL - work Integrated Learning courses will have same Credit Values as per norms of Technical Council Credit Transfer Framework.

Credit Transfer Frame work of UK :

Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme (CATS) is used in the United Kingdom to monitor, record and reward passage through a modular degree course and to facilitate movement between courses and institutions. One credit is equivalent to 10 notional hours of study (contact time and allocation for self-study). For example, any course have 150 estimated study hours would be worth 15 credits, and any course of 300 estimated study hours would be worth 30 credits. A full academic year is worth 120 credits and a full calendar year (normally only at postgraduate level) 180 credits. CATS schemes in use in Higher Education in the UK include CATS (England & Northern Ireland), SCOTCAT (Scotland), the Credit and Qualifications Framework for Wales credit framework (Wales), the Learning and Skills Development Agency credit framework and Open College Network credits.

Credits are associated with a level at which the learning took place. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, this will be one of Levels 1 to 8 on the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications (FHEQ), representing the first, second and third year of a bachelor's degree (levels 4 – 6), master's level (level 7) and doctoral level (level 8) In Scotland this will be at one of level 7 to 12 on the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF), representing the first, second, third and fourth year of a bachelor's degree (levels 7 – 10), master's level (level 11) and doctoral level (level 12).

Typically, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, a bachelor's degree with honors requires 360 credits, with at least 90 at level 6 of the FHEQ; an ordinary bachelor's degree requires 300 credits with 60 at level 6; a foundation degree requires 240 credits with 90 at level 5; an integrated master's degree requires 480 credits with 120 at level 7; a postgraduate taught master's degree requires 180 credits with 150 at level 7; and a professional doctorate requires 540 credits with 360 at level 8. Degrees in medicine, dentistry and veterinary science are not normally credit rated, nor are PhDs or master's degrees by research. In Scotland, a bachelor's degree with honors requires 480 credits, with at least 90 at level 9 of the SCQF and 90 at level 10; an ordinary bachelor's degree requires 360 credits with 60 at level 9; an integrated master's degree requires 600 credits with 120 at level 11; a postgraduate master's degree requires 180 credits with 150 at level 11; and a doctoral degree requires 540 credits with 420 at level 12. "Fast track" two-year bachelor's degrees of the full calendar year to fit a 360 credit course into two years.

Equivalence :

UK Credits are the same at a nominal 10 hours of learning per credit unit across CATS, the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework(covering higher and further education, vocational education and school qualifications in Scotland), the Credit and Qualifications Framework for Wales (ditto for Wales) and the Regulated Qualifications Framework (further education and vocational education in England and Northern Ireland and school qualifications in England).

There is an official equivalence with th e European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) where two UK Credits equals one ECTS Credit, based on there being 120 UK Credits to an academic year and ECTS Credits being defined as 60 in an academic year.

Four CATS points are equivalent to one US credit Transfer Rather than award fractional credits, US universities will sometimes consider a typical British 10 credit module to be worth 3 (rather than 2.5) US credit hours, similarly rounding 15 UK Credit modules to 4 US credit hours and 20 UK Credit modules to 5 US credit hours.

European Credit Transfer Framework (European Union) :

In European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), credits are a numerical value (between 1 and 60) allocated to course units to describe the student workload required to complete them. They reflect the quantity of work each course unit requires in relation to the total quantity of work necessary to complete a full year of academic study at the institution that is, lectures, practical work, seminars, tutorials, fieldwork, private study – in the library or at home – and examinations or other assessment activities. ECTS is thus based on a full student workload and not limited to contact hours only.

In ECTS, 60 credits represent the workload of a normal undergraduate academic year of study and normally 30 credits for a semester and 20 credits for a term. A postgraduate academic year of a full 12 months may have 90 credits.

United States Credit Transfer Framework :

Among western industrialized nations, the issue of credit transfer is probably most complex in the United States. The American post-secondary education system is made up of accredited degree granting and non-degree-granting institutions. These institutions may be public or private, non-profit or for-profit, and offering two- or four-year programs. This diversity of institution types makes implementing a unified, national credit transfer arrangement exceptionally difficult, if not impossible. A discussion of United States post-secondary education credit transfer can not proceed without emphasizing two key points.

First : Despite the high percentage of students using community college as a springboard to a four year baccalaureate degree, credit transfer from community college to university is not an automatic process. Transferability depends on the development of transfer and articulation arrangements between colleges and universities.

Second : The United States accreditation process is decentralized and complex and is carried out by private, non-profit organizations designed for this specific purpose . Accreditation in American post-secondary education serves a series of purposes. It ensures academic quality to students and the general public, plays an essential role in gaining access to federal education funds, and eases the student credit transfer process. US provide a comprehensive review of all institutional functions. National accreditors accredit public and private, non-profit and for profit institutions, and frequently accredit single-purpose institutions, including distance learning colleges and universities, private career institutions and faith-based colleges and universities. Specialized and professional a creditors accredit specific programs or schools, including law schools, medical schools, engineering schools and programs, and health profession programs. Credit Transfer Examples The existence of a for-profit college sector – even though it serves a relatively small fraction of American student. The discussion is thus expanded beyond the normal credit transfer dialogue between community colleges (two-year) and baccalaureate (four-year) university programs. Nationally (as opposed to regionally) accredited colleges, which are overwhelmingly for profit8 rather than non-profit, add another dimension to the discussion. Similar to Canada, credit transfers in American post-secondary education are handled. There are a variety of different credit transfer policy mechanisms in the United States. The most popular mechanism is state-wide co-operative agreements between institutions. These transfer arrangements are laborious and often formulated on a course-by-course, department-to-department or institution-to-institution basis.