Page 75 - FSTE A5 Handbook

(1) Perception and experience of application for credit transfer
As shown in chapter four, each university had its own structure, process and mechanism for
credit transfer. By and large, students should have been informed of the number of allowable
credits being transferred on admission. Therefore if they attempted to apply for further credit
transfer for individual courses, they often found it more difficult, which often arose from a lack
of understanding of the transfer mechanism and its rationale:

“There was a GE subject called Globalization and Business. The name was exactly the same as
the one that I have taken. I wanted to transfer it but the document said explicitly I could not,
even though the contents were the same.”

“If you went back to U5’s main campus to study in the articulation programme, you couldn’t
transfer the courses for the completed credits. That means you couldn’t transfer your GE. I am
quite upset. My fellow classmates and I study in U5. U5 does have the courses, similar courses,
but they do not let you transfer them. We need to take them again. I am now studying
International Shipping and Transport Logistics in U5. It requires us to take some GE courses,
which are related to Chinese culture, English writing. I have also taken some China-related
courses when I was studying my associate degree and U5 has some similar courses. But then,
when I consulted my department, they said I couldn’t transfer the courses, so I have to retake
all these courses again.”

This lack of understanding on the part of the students is not alarming. What the student
said just reflects the fact that he/she did not realize the community college was a separate
entity from the university proper. The geographic proximity and system similarity might have
confused him/her. Besides, individual course transfer is a complicated process that may
involve a detailed analysis of many related curricular materials for an exemption or transfer
to be granted.

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