APPENDIX
COMMISSION ON HIGHER EDUCATION TRANSFER
POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
The Commission on Higher Education for the State of
The Chief Transfer Officers at
For further information regarding transfer, students may access on
the Internet the Commission on Higher Education’s Home Page at
www.che400.state.sc.us or
1. The Statewide Articulation Agreement of 87 courses already
approved by the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education for transfer from
two-to four-year public institutions shall be applicable to all public
institutions, including two-year institutions and institutions within the same
system. In instances where an institution does not have synonymous courses to
ones on this list, it shall identify comparable courses or course categories
for acceptance of general education courses on the statewide list.
Admissions, Criteria, Course Grades, GPA’s,
Validations
2. All four-year public institutions shall issue annually in
August a transfer guide covering at least the following items:
A. The definition of a transfer student and requirements for
admission both to the institution and, if more selective, requirements for
admission to particular programs.
B. Limitations placed by the institution or its programs for
acceptance of standardized examinations (e.g., SAT, ACT) taken more than a
given time ago, for academic coursework taken elsewhere, for coursework
repeated due to failure, for coursework taken at another institution while the
student is academically suspended at his/her home institution, and so forth.
C. Institutional and, if more selective, programmatic maximums of
course credits allowable in transfer.
D. Institutional procedures used to calculate student applicants’
GPA’s for transfer admission. Such procedures shall describe how nonstandard
grades (withdrawal, withdrawal failing, repeated course, etc.) are evaluated;
and they shall also describe whether all coursework taken prior to transfer or
just coursework deemed appropriate to the student’s intended fouryear program
of study is calculated for purposes of admission to the institution and/or
programmatic major.
E. Lists of all courses accepted from each technical college
(including the 87 courses in the Statewide Articulation Agreement) and the
course equivalencies (including “free elective” category) at the home
institution for the courses accepted.
F. Lists of all articulation agreements with any public
G. Lists of the institution’s Transfer Officer(s) personnel
together with telephone and FAX numbers and office addresses.
H. Institutional policies related to “academic bankruptcy” (i.e.,
removing an entire transcript or parts thereof from a failed or underachieving
record after a period of years has passed) so that re-entry into the four-year
institution with course credit earned in the interim elsewhere is done without
regard to the student’s earlier record.
3. Courses (individual courses, transfer blocks, statewide
agreements) covered within these procedures shall be transferable if the
student has completed the coursework with a C grade (2.0 on a 4.0 scale) or
above, but transfer of grades does not relieve the student of the obligation to
meet any GPA requirements or other admission requirements of the institution or
program to which application has been made.
A. Any four-year institution which has institutional or
programmatic admissions requirements for transfer students with cumulative
grade point averages (GPAs) higher than 2.0 on a 4.0 scale shall apply such
entrance requirements equally to transfer students from regionally accredited
South Carolina public institutions regardless of whether students are
transferring from a four-year or two-year institution.
B. Any multi-campus institution or system shall certify by letter
to the Commission that all coursework at all of its campuses applicable to a
particular degree program of study is fully acceptable in transfer to meet
degree requirements in the same degree program at any other of its campuses.
4. Any coursework (individual courses, transfer blocks, statewide
agreements) covered within these procedures shall be transferable to any public
institution without any additional fee and without any further encumbrance such
as a “verification instrument,” or any other stricture, notwithstanding any
institutional or system policy, procedure, or regulation to the contrary.
Transfer Blocks, Statewide Agreements,
Completion of the AA/AS Degree
5. The following Transfer Blocks/Statewide Agreements taken at any
two-year public institution in
• Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences: Established curriculum
block of 46-48 semester hours
• Business Administration: Established curriculum block of 46-51
semester hours
• Engineering: Established curriculum block of 33 semester hours
• Science and Mathematics: Established curriculum block of 48- 51
semester hours
• Teacher education: Established curriculum block of 38-39
semester hours for Early Childhood, Elementary, and Special Education students
only. Secondary education majors and students seeking certification who are not
majoring in teacher education should consult the Arts, Humanities, and Social
Sciences or the Math and Science transfer blocks, as relevant, to assure
transferability of coursework.
• Nursing: By statewide agreement, at least 60 semester hours
shall be accepted by any public four-year institution toward the baccalaureate
completion program (BSN) from graduates of any South Carolina public associate
degree program in nursing (ADN), provided that the program is accredited by the
National League of Nursing and that the graduate has successfully passed the
National Licensure Examination (NCLEX) and is a currently licensed Registered
Nurse.
6. Any “unique” academic program not specifically or by extension
covered by one of the statewide transfer block/agreements listed in number 4
above shall either create its own transfer block of 35 or more credit hours
with the approval of CHE staff or shall adopt either the Arts/Social
Science/Humanities or the Science/Mathematics block by September, 1996. The
institution at which such program is located shall inform the staff of the CHE
and every institutional president and vice president for academic affairs about
this decision.
7. Any student who has completed either an Associate in Arts or
Associate in Science degree program at any public two-year South Carolina
institution which contains within it the total coursework found in either the
Arts/Social Sciences/Humanities Transfer Block or the Math/Science Transfer
Block shall automatically be entitled to junior-level status at whatever public
senior institution to which the student might have been admitted.
Related Reports and Statewide Documents
8. All applicable recommendations found in the Commission’s report
to the General Assembly on the School-to-Work Act (approved by the Commission
and transmitted to the General Assembly on
9. The policy paper entitled State Policy on Transfer and
Articulation, as amended to reflect changes in the numbers of transfer blocks
and other Commission action since
10. All claims from any public two- or four-year institution
challenging the effective preparation of any other public institution’s
coursework for transfer purposes shall be evaluated and appropriate measures
shall be taken to reassure that the quality of the coursework has been reviewed
and approved on a timely basis by sending and receiving institutions alike.
This process of formal review shall occur every four years through the staff of
the Commission on Higher Education, beginning with the approval of these
procedures.
Statewide Publication and Distribution of
Information on Transfer
11. The staff of the Commission of Higher Education shall print
and distribute copies of these procedures upon their acceptance by the
Commission. The staff shall also place this document and the Appendices on the
Commission’s Home Page on the Internet under the title “Transfer Policies.”
12. By September 1 of each year, all public four-year institutions
shall on their own Home Page on the Internet under the title “Transfer
Policies”:
A. Print a copy of their entire document.
B. Print a copy of their entire transfer guide.
C. Provide to the staff of the Commission in satisfactory format a
copy of their entire transfer guide for placing on the Commission’s Home Page
on the Internet.
13. By September 1 of each year, the staff of the State Board for
Technical and Comprehensive Education shall on its Home Page on the Internet
under the title “Transfer Policies”:
A. Print a copy of this document.
B. Provide to the Commission staff in format suitable for placing
on the Commission’s Home Page of the Internet a list of all articulation
agreements that each of the sixteen technical colleges has with Public and
other four-year institutions of higher education, together with information
about how interested parties can access those agreements.
14. Each two-year and four-year public institutional catalog shall
contain a section entitled “Transfer: State Policies and Procedures.” Such
Section at minimum shall:
A. Publish these procedures in their entirety.
B. Designate a chief Transfer Officer at the institution who shall
• provide information and other appropriate
support for students considering transfer and recent transfer
• serve as a clearinghouse for information
on issues of transfer in the State of
• provide definitive institutional rulings on transfer questions
for the institution’s students under these procedures
• work closely with feeder institutions to
assure ease in transfer for their students
C. Designate other programmatic Transfer Officer(s) as the size of
the institution and the variety of its programs might warrant.
D. Refer interested parties to the institutional Transfer Guide.
E. Refer interested parties to the institution’s and the
Commission on Higher Education’s Home Page on the Internet for further
information regarding transfer.