Academic Policies

General Education credit for transfer students

If a course taken at another institution is an approved general education course at that institution, then we should, in most cases, award general education credit for it when the student transfers here. The specific guidelines for transfer of general education courses are consistent with the principle that BGSU courses not approved for the general education program at BGSU will not receive general education credit at BGSU.

1. If a course transfers in as equivalent to a general education course at BGSU, the course fulfills a general education requirement as an automatic consequence of the transfer.
2. If a course does not have a BGSU equivalent, it will transfer in as 1XX or 3XX. In that case, if the student can provide documentation that the course is an approved general education course at the originating institution, the college will have the authority to grant general education credit at BGSU, with the following exceptions:
   

   a) If a course fulfills a requirement at the originating institution that does not exist at BGSU, then general education credit cannot be given for that course. For instance, at the current time there is not a general education requirement for mathematics at BGSU. Consequently, we cannot award general education credit for a math course, even though it may fulfill a general education requirement at the originating institution.
   b) It may occasionally occur that a general education course elsewhere transfers in as a BGSU-equivalent course, but one that is not approved for general education credit at BGSU. For instance, it may be the case that a film course fulfills the arts and humanities requirement at another school. If the course transfers in as THEA 262 (History of Film) general education credit will not automatically be granted. In order to be consistent with our treatment of "native" students, who do not receive general education credit for such a course, general education credit will not be granted for transfer courses of this type.

3. Transfer equivalency of English composition courses will be determined by the General Studies Writing program.
4. If a course without a BGSU equivalency is not approved as a general education course at the originating institution, the course will not receive general education credit at BGSU.