Joint Statement on the Transfer and Award of Credit

The American Council on Education (ACE), the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), and the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) have jointly released an updated Joint Statement on the Transfer and Award of Credit (80KB; PDF). This statement provides a framework to revisit increasingly complex transferability issues. The intent of the statement is not to be prescriptive but to provide guidelines based on the current work and policies of our respective associations, encouraging both institutional autonomy and equity and access for all learners.

Originally created in 1978 by ACE, the former Council on Postsecondary Accreditation (COPA), and AACRAO, the revised statement addresses transferability issues that are more pertinent to our times, including:

• New language that reflects the diversity of educational providers engaged in lifelong learning. Learning increasingly occurs in venues outside traditional institutions. Today's educational providers can include training vendors; corporate universities; virtual universities; business and industry; and partnerships among traditional institutions themselves.
  
  
• The role of distance learning. Learning outcomes are emphasized as the world of pedagogy shifts from input to outcomes in its understanding of how students need to learn.
  
  
• "Balance" in the use of accreditation status when making transfer decisions. As the statement notes: "Institutions and accreditors need to assure that transfer decisions are not made solely on the source of accreditation of the sending program or institution."

Visitors to this site should feel free to use this statement in its entirety and with appropriate attribution.

View Joint Statement on the Transfer and Award of Credit (80KB; PDF).