Course Equivalency Service Gets a Facelift
The Course Equivalency Service provides a guarantee of transferability to currently enrolled UW–Madison students who plan to complete summer or winter term course work through another institution. Knowing exactly how a course will transfer back to UW–Madison allows students to enroll in summer or winter term courses that will satisfy their degree/major/certificate requirements.
This equivalency service has been offered by Admission for many years and was inherited by the Credit Evaluation Service team in the RO. The previous process allowed students to submit course descriptions for up to four summer courses or one winter course, or use the UW System Transfer Information System (TIS) to determine transferability for a public college in Wisconsin. Transfer admission counselors reviewed course descriptions submitted by students to make a guarantee of transferability.
What were the updates?
The Credit Evaluation Services team worked with campus partners in the advising community and each school and college that has undergraduate courses to update the course equivalency service processes.
Students are now directed to check Transferology to see if a matching course equivalent exists. If a matching equivalent exists, that is how the course will transfer back to UW–Madison for the summer or winter term and no further action needs to be taken.
If no matching course equivalent exists, then students are able to submit a Course Equivalency Request with a detailed course syllabus. Students can submit up to five requests for the summer term (between March 1 and May 15) and two requests for the winter term (between November 1 and December 1). The Credit Evaluation Services team works with faculty and academic departments to review syllabi and communicate the course equivalency result back to the student. As new course equivalents are determined, these equivalent rules are created in SIS and loaded to Transferology. The service isn’t currently offered for the spring or fall term because students are not encouraged to be concurrently enrolled at UW and another college during the spring or fall.
What was the process for identifying and agreeing upon the updates?
Scott Golueke developed a couple proposals and presented their pros and cons to representatives from the general education committee and College of Letters & Science – chosen because half of all transfer equivalent rules are to a L&S subject listing. A proposal was agreed upon and presented to representatives from the advising community and each school/college with undergraduate courses. There was unanimous agreement to move forward with this new process.
What impact will the updates have?
These updates will allow currently enrolled UW–Madison students and their advisors to reliably use the course information in Transferology prior to spending time and money completing course work away from UW–Madison. By collecting syllabi and routing to academic departments for review, we are able to ensure the integrity of our curriculum by having guarantees of transferability made by the faculty with expertise in their subject area. As syllabi are reviewed and new transfer equivalents are determined, we are able to provide increasingly more transfer equivalents in Transferology for prospective and current students.