Trinity Western University supports the goals of students seeking transfer credit, and desires to maintain a transfer friendly stance towards students. The University reserves the right to accept only courses that comply with the academic standards established by TWU and with the requirements for graduation. TWU reserves the right to change the transfer credit policy without notice.
Details
TWU will approve courses for transfer upon receipt of an official transcript. Various individual transfer credit maximums and restrictions are detailed in the Admissions and Registration section of your Academic Calendar.
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 and no transfer credits will be granted if they are not declared prior to your admission to TWU.
If you need support with your credits during the admission process, you are encouraged to reach out to your Admissions Counsellor or Enrollment Advisor.
Transfer Credit Limits:
The minimum grade for all courses considered for transfer credit is a D (53%). Certain programs may require a minimum letter grade for transfer credit that is higher than a D. In cases where a lower grade than the minimum required is achieved, no credit will be granted.
- A maximum of 9 credit hours of upper-level courses may be transferred to a student’s major.
- A maximum of 6 credit hours of upper-level courses may be transferred to a student’s concentration.
- A maximum of 3 credit hours of upper-level courses may be transferred to a student’s minor.
Procedure
Documentation (including post-secondary transcripts and course syllabi) should be submitted as part of your application with your admissions counsellor.
Time frame for evaluation completion
The approximate wait period upon a full submission of required documents and official transcripts is four to six weeks. The time frames for the completion of your transfer evaluation may vary due to when all required documents are submitted and the volume of applications. TWU's transfer credit specialist (email: transfer@twu.ca) will keep you informed during the evaluation process.
You have one year from your first semester at TWU to send all the required syllabi and complete your transfer credits. After this time frame has passed, no changes will be made to your transfer credit.
Definitions
Below are some common terms that may help you to understand your transfer credit:
Transfer Credit Record
This document contains all the details about your TWU transfer credit. You can access your Transfer Credit Record at My Transfer Credit once you have logged into your Student Portal. It is recommended that you watch this video explaining how to read your transfer credit record, and then book a meeting with your Enrollment Advisor (new students) or Academic Advisor (current students) to discuss how your transfer credit applies to your TWU program checklist. Please make sure you bring your transfer credit record to all advising sessions because it is the only document that lists course waivers and other important information regarding your transfer credit. You may also contact the Academic Advising team if your academic advisor is unavailable to meet with you.
Syllabi
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.
- Name of the transferring institution
- Semester and year the course was taken
- Course code (e.g., GEOG 1120)
- Course title (e.g., Introduction to Physical Geography)
- Course instructor information
- Number of course credits (semester hours)
- Course description
- Course learning outcomes and/or objectives
- Course outline – list of topics covered in the course
- Required reading materials – textbooks
- Criteria for course evaluation – distribution of marks (workload)
- Length of time/hours allocated to complete the course
Specific/direct Credit
Specific credit is when a course is a direct equivalent of a specific TWU course. Substantial information about the content of the courses (ie. 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 and General Credit
Unassigned credit is when a course falls under a TWU faculty (ie. 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 when a course does not quite fit into a faculty, 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 and review their program checklist to determine if this is the case.
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 2nd, 3rd or 4th year courses.
There is no limit to how much general or unassigned credit makes up a student’s transfer credit.
Block Transfer
A group of unassigned credits that transfer as general lower-level credit only (i.e. lower-level elective credit). 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.
Waivers
A transfer credit waiver is when unassigned credit is granted, but the requirement for a specific course is waived because there is substantial overlap in course content and learning outcomes. Example: “ART 100 level transfer credit (3), waives ART 181”.
Waivers meet TWU Core requirements. So, in the example above, a student would be waived from ART 181 as a program requirement or the Aesthetic & Performance Inquiry requirement in the Core.
ENGL waiver exception
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) Lit; waives ENGL 103 or 104” or “ENGL 100 level Comp Waiver (3) Comp; waives ENGL 103 or 104”.
A LIT or COMP waiver may apply towards the Academic Research & 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 (i.e. the student will still need to take either ENGL 103 or 104 at TWU):
LIT + LIT = waive ENGL 103 + 104
LIT + COMP = waive ENGL 103 +104
COMP + COMP = ONLY waives ONE of ENGL 103 or 104
Initial Transfer Credit
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. If you receive between 24 and 56 semester hours of initial transfer credit you are exempt from taking FNDN 101 in your first semester at TWU. If you have 57 sh or more of initial transfer credit you should follow the Modified Core Requirements Table, which is available on our Academic Advising website.
Re-enrolling students who have taken courses through another institution during their time away from TWU will not have these credits added to their initial transfer credit block. These courses will be assessed individually for possible specific transfer credit.
Have further questions? Please read through the additional information provided on our transfer credit webpage. If you require further clarification about your transfer credit, click here to submit a request for us to assist you.