Transfer of Credit Policy

Graduate courses completed at an institutionally accredited college or university may be transferred to Southern Arkansas University and applied toward a graduate degree program, provided that the following criteria are met:

• The graduate level course is comparable to SAU graduate level work;
• The student earned a grade of A or B in the course (or the equivalent, if another grading system were used);
• The course was not applied toward another degree; and
• The advisor/program director approve the acceptance of the transfer course(s).

Institutional (formerly described as regional) accreditors:

• Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) Western Association of Schools and Colleges
• The Higher Learning Commission (HLC)
• Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE)
• New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE)
• Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU)
• Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSOC)
• WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC)

For master's degree programs, no more than 30% of the required credit hours for the degree can be transfer credits (e.g., a student in a 30-credit hour degree program may use no more than 9 transfer credit hours, a student in a 60-credit hour degree program may use no more than 18 transfer credit hours). Faculty of a particular graduate program may restrict the number of transfer hours permitted to a lower maximum than permitted by the general graduate school policy.

All transfer hours submitted for master’s degree program credit must have been completed no more than six years prior to the completion of the SAU graduate program. All transfer hours submitted for the doctoral degree program credit must have been completed no more than ten years prior to the completion of the SAU graduate program. Transfer credit is not allowed for a graduate certificate. Some programs in the College of Education will accept up to nine hours of credit from American Council of Education (ACE).

A student wishing to transfer credits from other institutions must notify their advisor of their plan to transfer credits prior to registering for their first semester by submitting a Graduate Course Substitution Request Form (see www.saumag.edu/graduate). Also, the student must provide the advisor a course description or syllabus, and an official transcript from the transferring institution if the transcript is not on file with the registrar.

Transfer credits will be accepted only from institutions that have accredited programs similar to those of SAU. Transfer credits will be posted on the SAU transcript; however, grades earned at other institutions will not be used to calculate a student’s cumulative grade point average. Students should be aware of the difference in quarter hours and semester hours. Quarter hours do not equate to semester hours.

If, after admission to an SAU master’s degree program of study, a student wishes to take a course at another institution to count toward program requirements at SAU, the student must secure, in advance of enrollment, advisor approval and submit an off-campus approval form to the School of Graduate Studies. Additionally, students who wish to take a course off-campus during the semester of graduation must submit a request to take off-campus courses during the semester of graduation form. Both forms can be found on our website www.saumag.edu/graduate. Concurrent enrollment is prohibited in the doctoral program.