The purpose of this report is to examine and compare course outlines at BC Transfer System member institutions, and to provide recommendations for course outline content and format to facilitate request for transfer credit. This project examined course outlines and/or syllabi from 36 BC Transfer System member institutions, along with each…

Reverse transfer has been part of the United States post-secondary landscape for more than a decade, in the form of statewide, system-wide, regional, and institutional transfer agreements. Reverse transfer agreements, as structured in the US, allow a college student in an associate degree program who transfers to a university before completing the…

The number of credits completed to earn a baccalaureate degree continues to be an important criterion for measuring the effectiveness and efficiency of transfer between post-secondary institutions. Many undergraduates -- both transfer and direct entry students -- complete more than 120 credits needed for a "traditional" degree. The…

Stranded credit is credit that students have earned at a postsecondary institution, but cannot use or transfer because they have unpaid debts at the institution. Institutions will usually not issue official transcripts to students with debt, which results in the student being unable to formally document the credits they have acquired. This can…

Within the BC Transfer System (BCTS), decisions to award transfer credit are important to the overall success of the system. When courses are deemed to be equivalent, the ability to transfer credits from those courses facilitates students' mobility and academic success, in addition to creating cost efficiencies at the participating institutions.…

The main purposes of this research are to describe the volume, features and trends characterizing block transfer and degree partnership pathways in the British Columbia (BC) Transfer System (BCTS); to determine existing business practices that may impact data on degree pathways; and to identify successful practices that may assist institutions in…

This project focuses on the student practice of "stepping out" to earn transfer credits at a second or additional ("host") institution, while continuing in a program at their first ("home") institution. It is based on data from a cohort of students who graduated in 2015/2016 from any of the 21 public institutions in…

Building on earlier quantitative BCCAT [British Columbia Council on Admissions and Transfer] research assessing number of credits required for graduation (2010, 2020), this study sought to use a qualitative analysis to explore the reasons why students collect more credits than required for their credential(s) and their general feelings towards…

Permitting students to transfer credits earned in one program towards another program lies at the heart of the BC post-secondary transfer system, maximizing student mobility through credit portability. This study focused on situations where students seek to apply credits to multiple credentials that are "lateral" (for example, where a…

International assessment of academic documents by post-secondary institutions and other bodies represents a complex field guided by quality assurance frameworks, formal conventions and best practice. This research study seeks to illuminate this complexity by examining current practices, constraints, perspectives, and possibilities for transfer and…

Increased student mobility within the British Columbia (BC) Transfer System (BCTS) means that students can easily enter and exit postsecondary studies. However, a significant amount of time may elapse between when a student acquires credits and when they wish to use, re-use or transfer those credits. This has led to BCTS member institutions facing…

This report examines transfer student pathways and performance from British Columbia (BC) Transfer System institutions into BC's public research-intensive universities: Royal Roads University (RRU), Simon Fraser University (SFU), Thompson Rivers University (TRU), University of British Columbia (UBC), University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC),…

The Advanced Placement (AP) program provides the opportunity for high school students to enrol in advanced level coursework in a number of subjects, and potentially earn college or university transfer credit. AP is owned, created, and administered by the nonprofit College Board, and many post-secondary institutions provide transfer credit or…

Interdisciplinary programs have significantly increased in scope and scale over the past several decades, including those in British Columbia. The nature of these programs creates unique challenges for transfer and articulation processes that rely heavily on disciplinary expertise and review; these challenges are complicated by the fact that…

The British Columbia Council on Admissions & Transfer (BCCAT) commissioned Plaid Consulting to conduct a study focused on Academic Dual Credit (ADC) in British Columbia post-secondary institutions (PSIs). This study follows up on a 2017 BCCAT study on dual credit programs "Dual Credit Programs: Exploring Dual Credit Student Transition and…