A government policy may soon make it easier for academic credits to be transferred between schools.
As part of the plan to amend the 1965 Higher Education Act, the Government Accountability Office, in a report submitted to the Congress last week, proposed that universities be required to accept transfer credits based on a sending school's accreditation.
The decision, though, has roiled many university administrators, including those at Penn.
Whether transfer credits will be accepted at the University are determined on a case-by-case basis. Each student's transcript is evaluated and courses are reviewed based on a department's guidelines. The quality of the sending school is also considered, said Admissions Dean Lee Stetson.
Stetson added that most students who receive transfer credits come from institutions similar to Penn. About 200 students -- out of an applicant pool of more than 1,600 -- transfer into the four undergraduate schools each year.
Penn is accredited by several organizations, one of which is the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, that help the University set its academic standards.
The Accountability Office report argues that if a university denies a student transfer credit, students may need more time to fulfill graduation requirements.
Because of the government's investment in providing financial aid to many students who seek such credit, "it is in the best interest of taxpayers that transfer students do not unnecessarily repeat course work, since such repetition could result in additional financial aid awards," the report said.
But University President Amy Gutmann signed a joint letter with members of the American Association of Universities to lobby against such a proposal.
She said that while she supports the proposal that universities facilitate transfer credits and be more transparent in their policies, it is not a good idea for the government to dictate the actual policy.
"What we don't approve of is the idea that there's a federal role in determining how we decide transfer decisions," she said.
Barmak Nassirian, an associate executive director at the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, said that most post-secondary schools are divided between two types of accreditation.
The first type is regional accreditation that includes most collegiate institutions. He referred to these as the "real" colleges and universities.
The second group contains for-profit schools or specialized schools that receive similar federal aid but are nationally accredited. Degrees offered by such schools range from physical therapy to plumbing.
He said that requiring universities to accept transfer credits from schools with such different accreditation systems would be undermining the credentials of the university.
"Degrees are complex phenomena ... and while they might be similar, they are not interchangeable," Nassirian said.
The proposers of this amendment "appear to believe that just because a class has been paid for ... it counts for earning a credit," he added.
However, Judith Watkins, vice president of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation said that so long as the accreditation is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, the bill would require "colleges and universities to consider all applications" and not deny credit "solely based on the accreditation."
Watkins added that credit should be evaluated based on the quality of the course rather than the type of accreditation.
