Transfer Credit

The approximate wait period upon a full submission of required documents and official transcripts is four weeks. The timeframes for the completion of your transfer evaluation may vary depending on when all required documents are submitted and the volume of applications received. TWU’s transfer credit specialist will keep you informed during the evaluation process.

You have one year from your first semester of enrolment at TWU to send all the required syllabi and complete your transfer credits.

You can find your transfer credit record at My Transfer Credit. It is imperative that you bring your transfer credit record to all advising sessions because it is the only document that lists any waivers or other important information regarding your transfer credits.

If you are an incoming student who has never attended TWU, the transfer credit evaluation of your declared transcripts begins automatically once you are admitted to TWU. You must declare all previous academic history during the application process. No transfer credits will be granted if they are not declared prior to your admission to TWU.

TWU credits are granted for International Baccalaureate (IB) Higher Level or Advanced Placement (AP) coursework with a minimum grade of 4 or higher. IB Standard Level courses are not eligible for transfer credits.

Transfer credit is only granted from official IB and AP transcripts. High school transcripts and predicted grades are not acceptable. Please contact IB or College Board directly and have them send official transcripts to TWU Admissions for evaluation.

To see how and what will transfer specifically, visit BC Transfer Guide.

TWU will evaluate credits for coursework completed in foreign universities. Courses taught in non-English speaking countries must be assessed first by an external international credit evaluation agency such as:

• World Education Service (WES): A comprehensive course-by-course evaluation is recommended for TWU evaluation.
• ICES International Credential Evaluation Service
• Any other evaluation agency that is a member of the Alliance of Credential Services of Canada.

A syllabus includes a detailed outline of the course, including exams, papers, textbooks, materials, professor, etc.

Syllabi should be from the year and semester that a student took the course. The following checklist outlines the contents of a course syllabus. If your syllabus does not contain all the information from this checklist, your evaluation may be delayed. We highly recommend you review your syllabus against this checklist before sending your transfer evaluation requests. Submitting complete and detailed course syllabi for all courses will expedite TWU’s evaluation of your transfer credits. For courses where a laboratory component was required (eg. Biology, Chemistry), a separate lab syllabus must be submitted for evaluation in addition to the primary course syllabus.

1. Name of the transferring institution
2. Semester and year the course was taken
3. Course code (e.g., GEOG 1120)
4. Course title (e.g., Introduction to Physical Geography)
5. Course instructor information
6. Number of course credits (semester hours)
7. Course description
8. Course learning outcomes and/or objectives
9. Course outline – list of topics covered in the course
10. Required reading materials – textbooks
11. Criteria for course evaluation – distribution of marks (workload)
12. Length of time/hours allocated to complete the course

Specific credit is granted when a course is a direct equivalent of a specific TWU course. Substantial information about the content of the courses (i.e., a syllabus, which should include a detailed outline of the course, including exams, papers, textbooks, materials etc.) is required for our faculty evaluators to conduct the evaluation for specific TWU credits.

Unassigned credit is granted when a course is generally categorized under a TWU program (i.e., MATH, ART, HIST) but does not have a specific/direct course match. Unassigned credits are listed as ‘[DEPT] #00 level transfer credit’. Some examples are as follows: “BIOL 200 level transfer credit,” “ART 100 level transfer credit.”

General credit (GENS) is granted when a course does not fit into a TWU program, but TWU acknowledges that it is academically sound and may receive elective credit. General credits are listed as “GENS 300 level transfer credit.”

Unassigned credits and general credits may always apply to your general elective credits. Unassigned credit might be acceptable to apply towards some program requirements, but students will need to speak to their academic advisor for that determination.

General and unassigned credit may not fulfill the requirement for specific courses or prerequisites or apply towards TWU core requirements unless specified with a waiver on the student’s transfer credit record. They do, however, contribute to overall hours earned, which may be used to enter second-, third-, or fourth-year courses.

There is no limit to how much general or unassigned credit makes up a student’s transfer credit.

This is a group of unassigned credits that transfer as general lower-level credit only. A block is just a convenient way to list a larger number of credits from an outside institution that do not receive any specific credit at TWU.

Some courses are given a general transfer credit waiver. This waives the requirement for a specific course when unassigned credit is granted. Example: ART 100 level transfer credit (3), waives ART 181.

Waivers meet TWU core requirements. In the example above, a student would be waived from ART 181 as a program requirement and the Aesthetic and Performance Inquiry requirement in the core.

Please review your transfer credit record to see if there are any waivers given for your unassigned transfer credit.

Some English courses transfer to TWU as unassigned credits and with a literary (LIT) or composition (COMP) waiver. The course must be listed as “ENGL 100 level LIT Waiver (3) literature waiver for ENGL 103 or 104” or “ENGL 100 level COMP Waiver (3) composition waiver for ENGL 103 or 104.”

A LIT or COMP waiver may apply towards the Academic Research and Writing core requirement. Please note that if a student has two COMP waivers, only one may count towards the core requirement and the other will just receive unassigned credits:

• LIT + LIT = waive ENGL 103 + 104
• LIT + COMP = waive ENGL 103 +104
• COMP + COMP = ONLY waive ONE: ENGL 103 or 104

An LOP is prior approval for a course to be taken by current TWU students at another institution and receive TWU transfer credit for it upon successful completion. After admission to TWU, students who wish to take credits elsewhere and transfer them to TWU must first apply for an LOP. 

Restrictions

LOPs should be rare and limited to situations where a student wishes to study something that is not offered at TWU. TWU online courses now have increased capacity, and students can also discuss with their advisor if an independent study or directed study is needed.  

Until fall 2023, a maximum of 3 credit hours toward the core curriculum degree requirements may be taken by LOP. After fall 2023, no transfer credit taken by LOP may be applied to core requirements.

Repeated courses will not be granted credit if taken more than once—either at TWU or another institution.

Eligibility to apply for an LOP

To apply for an LOP, the student must be registered in a TWU degree program and must be in good financial standing at TWU. The course must be from an accredited institution that is recognized by TWU.

Please note that being eligible to apply for an LOP does not guarantee that you will be granted permission to transfer a course.

Before applying, it is the student’s responsibility to read through the information below:

• You must submit an LOP form and get approval prior to taking the course. Failing to do so may result in not receiving transfer credit as expected or at all.
• You must complete the course requested within one year after receiving the LOP approval. If approval has expired, but you have not started the course, you must re-apply and the decision is subject to change.
• You are responsible for checking that the approved transfer courses will meet your program requirements and stay within any transfer credit limits (such as LOP restrictions, upper-level limits, program grade minimums, duplicate courses, etc.).

Applying for an LOP

• Timeline: Students are strongly encouraged to submit LOP requests four to six weeks prior to the course registration deadline to allow for document submission and articulation evaluation.
• Cost: A $25.00 service fee is required to process LOP requests for an institution not listed on the BC Transfer Guide (per institution and up to five courses).
• Syllabi: The submission of a syllabus may be required if a course has not been previously articulated or if the articulation has expired.
• Cancellation of LOP: If you no longer intend to take a course already approved on your LOP, please email transfer@twu.ca to have the course removed from your transfer credit record. You must provide your name, TWU student ID, host institution, and the specific course code (course code from the institution, not the TWU course).

Steps

1. Print out or digitally fill in this Letter of Permission Application form.
2. Attach each course syllabus unless the course is listed and evaluated in the BC Transfer Guide. Please note, decisions made by TWU are final, and they may differ from the BC Transfer Guide decisions.
3. To submit and pay (when the hosting institution is not listed the BC Transfer Guide, $25.00 fee per form), email the completed form to transfer@twu.ca, and your student account will be charged.
4. Once the requested courses have been evaluated, you will be notified via email of the transfer decision.
5. Review TWU’s transfer decision to ensure it is still applicable to your program requirements and that you are within any transfer credit limits (such as LOP restrictions, upper-level limits, program grade minimums, duplicate courses, etc.)
6. If required by the host institution, you may request that the TWU Office of the Registrar send a formal LOP to the institution which will serve as the basis for the student's admission as a visiting student there. To do so, you must provide the email address from the host institution for it to be sent to.
7. Request the host institution to send your official transcript directly to TWU once you complete a course and receive a final grade. Upon receiving the transcript (two to four weeks), you will be notified of your transfer credit being complete. Transcripts sent by the student are not considered official. They must come directly from the institution to TWU.
8. Transcripts may be sent digitally to Admissions@twu.ca or mailed to:

ATTN: Transfer Admissions,
Mattson Centre, Trinity Western University
22500 University Drive
Langley BC, Canada
V2Y 1Y1