ACE Policy for Transfer Students

From UNL’s Undergraduate Transfer Credit Policy:
Transfer credit is any post-secondary credit earned at an institution outside the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, including other institutions in the University of Nebraska System (NCTA, UNK, UNO, and UNMC)(1).

POLICY REGARDING TRANSFERRING CREDIT AS STATED IN ACE DOCUMENT #4 GOVERNANCE AND ASSESSMENT

In accordance with the ACE document #4 Governance and Assessment, Section IV, transfer students will earn credit for an ACE outcome if the course they have completed from an institution outside UNL is directly equivalent to a course offered at UNL that is certified to meet an ACE outcome.  The language in the ACE document explains:

IV. Transfers from Other Institutions.
Through established review of course equivalency and articulation agreements, the office of the Dean of Undergraduate Studies will begin providing institutions from which most students transfer credit to UNL with information regarding the ACE Institutional Objectives and Student Learning Outcomes. 

When a course from another institution is established as equivalent to a UNL course through articulation or equivalency agreements, then that course will fulfill the same ACE Outcome as the equivalent ACE-certified UNL course.

In cases where no articulation or equivalency agreement exists, the transferring student’s UNL home college is empowered to seek the information it needs (from the other institution, copies of course syllabi or assignments, or from an examination of graded student work for that course submitted by the student seeking equivalency credit) to make a determination of whether the transferred course can be counted for that student as ACE-equivalent.

ADDITIONAL POLICY REGARDING TRANSFERRING CREDIT

The ACE document approved by faculty of UNL’s eight undergraduate colleges provides a framework for granting ACE credit for transferring courses. However, it does not provide guidance for granting ACE credit in cases for which direct equivalencies of transfer courses to UNL courses have not been established. Furthermore, questions regarding what bulletin year transfer students can use needed answers and evaluation criteria for ACE transfer courses were not established in the ACE document #4 Governance and Assessment.

Bulletin Year Clarification
Approved by the Interim ACE Committee May 7, 2008

Students who transfer* from institutions outside UNL during the following academic years: 2008-09, 2009-2010, and 2010-2011 may elect to follow the bulletin published in 2008-09 or a subsequent bulletin. This transition period will be in effect until the beginning of the 2011-12 academic year, at which time students must follow the current UNL bulletin.

*Transfer students are defined as those who currently are taking or have taken more than 12 semester credits of college or university-level course work since high school graduation (taken from UNL’s Undergraduate Transfer Credit Policy).

ACE Transfer Course Evaluation Criteria
Approved by the Interim ACE Committee May 12, 2008

1. Students must earn credit for Student Learning Objective (SLO) #10 at UNL and may not transfer in credit for that outcome. [SLO #10 stipulates that each student generates a creative or scholarly product that requires broad knowledge, appropriate technical proficiency, information collection, synthesis, interpretation, presentation, and reflection.]
   
   
2. If a transfer course is certified for ACE credit, it will be accepted by all colleges.
   
   
3. Students transferring a course for ACE credit must earn a “C” or better in that course.
   
   
4. If a transfer course is certified for ACE credit, it must be recertified regularly.
   
   
5. For transfer courses for which a direct course equivalent is available at UNL, existing articulation agreements are reviewed regularly to determine whether a transfer course continues to be a direct equivalent to an established UNL course.  The institution transferring the course must provide a syllabus for the course for the periodic review of transfer courses directly equivalent to UNL courses that are certified for ACE credit. Appropriate unit transfer evaluators will use the syllabus to confirm that the course appears to satisfy criteria for ACE-certified courses. Using a decision-making process that mirrors the way other ACE course requests are certified, the evaluators will use the syllabus to determine that:
   
6. 1. the student has opportunities to learn the outcome in the work of the course, and
   2. student work is produced as a result of the course that enable students to work toward achieving the outcome.
      
7. For transfer courses for which a direct UNL equivalent does not exist, the process for earning credit for ACE courses should follow the same path as other requests for UNL credit for other transfer courses that do not have existing articulation agreements. A completed “Transfer Course Equivalency Evaluation” form can be used by appropriate unit transfer evaluators to determine whether or not transfer ACE credit will be granted. A representative syllabus for the course must be provided to the evaluators along with the “Transfer Course Equivalency Evaluation” form. Appropriate unit transfer evaluators will use the syllabus to determine which outcome is appropriate and whether the course appears to satisfy criteria for ACE-certified courses. Using a decision-making process that mirrors the way other ACE course requests are being certified, the evaluators will use the syllabus to determine:
   
8. 1. the outcome for which ACE credit will be granted,
   2. that the student has opportunities to learn the outcome in the work of the course, and
   3. that student work is produced as a result of the course that enable students to work toward achieving the outcome.