Academic
Catalog August 2007 - August 2008 Undergraduate
and Graduate
To meet the requirements of your particular degree plan, you may be able to use transfer credit that you earned at another institution. Transfer evaluators in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions review your transfer transcript to determine your total number of transfer units and how those units will count toward satisfying NAU’s liberal studies requirements; then academic departments evaluate your transfer work to determine how any transfer courses may count toward your major and minor requirements.
We accept credit from regionally accredited four-year institutions on a credit-unit-for-credit-unit basis for college-level courses with grades of P (credit awarded), C, 2.0 or better.
We may accept credit from nationally accredited four-year and two-year institutions and from non-accredited institutions. Petitions for acceptance of credit from these institutions are to be sent to the Associate Provost for Academic Administration.
Northern Arizona University accepts only transfer credits, no grade point averages.
We accept up to 64 transfer credits from accredited two-year colleges. These credits must carry grades of P (credit awarded), C, 2.0, or better and be from a college-parallel program designed for transfer toward a bachelor’s degree.
You may transfer courses from a two-year college as equivalent courses but only at the lower-division credit level.
If you transfer from an Arizona college or university, you may follow the degree requirements in effect at the time you began your college work, provided your attendance has been continuous (as explained under Catalog to Use for Degree Requirements) and you have made normal progress. Please review the requirements of the department in which you plan to enroll for additional information about transferring credits.
Arizona’s public community colleges and universities have a common structure for transfer purposes, called the Arizona General Education Curriculum (AGEC). This has replaced an earlier structure, the Transfer General Education Core Curriculum (TGECC), which is also still valid. Certified completion of either a TGECC or AGEC will satisfy NAU’s liberal studies requirements. In addition, NAU accepts the California Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) as satisfying our liberal studies requirements; you can earn the IGETC at most community colleges in California. For more information, see Undergraduate Liberal Studies (General Education) Requirements in the section titled NAU’s Academic Plans.
The Course Equivalency Guide (CEG), which is part of the Arizona Course Applicability System, indicates how the three public universities accept transfer coursework (numbered 100 or above) from Arizona community colleges and Diné College. The CEG is available on the web at http://az.transfer.org/cas.
If you have been admitted to a graduate program at NAU and have earned resident graduate credit at another institution, you can petition the Graduate College to apply such credit toward your graduate degree.
Transferring credits to a graduate degree program is not done routinely. Before you enroll in one or more courses at another institution with plans to transfer the credits to an academic plan at NAU, you must obtain your advisor’s approval.
To be considered for transfer credit, your courses must:
have been earned at a regionally accredited institution
have been earned with a grade of A or B
(We will accept a pass grade if the course is graded only on a pass-fail basis.)
have been earned within the six-year period required for completing your degree at NAU (master’s degree only)
be applicable to a graduate degree at the institution where the credit was earned
meet the Arizona Board of Regents’ requirement for credit: A minimum of 45 hours of work is required for each unit of credit. (Note: An hour of work is equivalent to 50 minutes of class time, often called a “contact hour,” or 60 minutes of independent study work. We require at least 45 contact hours for each 3-credit course, and we assume at least 90 hours of student homework for that course.) Ordinarily, a course must cover a one-week period for every unit of credit given.
the number of units you transfer from other institutions cannot exceed twenty-five percent of the total minimum units of credit required for your master’s degree or graduate certificate. A student in the M.Ed. in Secondary Education plan may transfer 12 units in the content area.
Master’s students must complete the Petition for Transfer Credit form. For doctoral students, the transfer credit should be noted on the plan of study. The Graduate College will finalize the transfer credit at the time of admission to candidacy.