MADISON — The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents approved a resolution at its meeting on Friday (May 7) that advances recommendations to improve credit transfer between UW System institutions and the Wisconsin Technical College System.
The two systems are working to update the credit transfer policies to ensure a more seamless educational experience for transfer students in Wisconsin.
“Representatives from both systems have worked together to ensure these changes are in the best interest of students,” said UW System President Katharine C. Lyall. “We look forward to continued collaboration so credit transfer policies remain responsive to the needs of students, as well as the needs of the state’s workforce.”
“These changes to UW System transfer policies represent a landmark step in improving access to lifelong learning for technical college students and their employers,” said WTCS President Richard Carpenter. “We look forward to continuing our work with the UW System in this ongoing process of creating a more seamless education system for Wisconsin.”
The regents approved several updates to the UW System Undergraduate Transfer Policy, including revisions that will:
- Enable UW institutions to transfer technical college credits earned in occupational/technical courses on a course-by-course basis;
- Increase to 30 the number of general education credits students may transfer to UW institutions from technical college applied associate degree programs; and
- Permit students who complete a newly aligned WTCS liberal arts associate degree at MATC-Madison, MATC- Milwaukee, or Nicolet Area Technical College, to satisfy university-wide general education requirements at any UW institution.
The two systems have been working together closely for several years to make transferring within the state’s public higher education systems more seamless and have greatly expanded opportunities for credit transfer and joint programming between the two systems.
As part of the effort, each system has established an ombudsperson who works to help students during the transfer process, and they jointly sponsor the “Transfer Information System,” an online resource that allows students to see which courses will transfer between the two systems before they make decisions on what courses to take. Students and advisers can access the Transfer Information System at https://www.wisconsin.edu/transfer/.
More information about the joint UW-WTCS committee on credit transfer is available at http://www.uwsa.edu/acadaff/transfer.htm.
Contacts:
Larry Rubin, UW System
lrubin@uwsa.edu
(608) 262-6717
Deborah Mahaffey, WTCS
deborah.mahaffey@wtcsystem.org
(608) 266-2302