Glossary of Transfer Terms
A
Academic Calendar - An academic calendar is a post-secondary institution’s guide to information about programs, courses, fees, regulations, procedures, grading systems, scholarships important dates, and more.
Academic Year – September 1 to August 31 (may vary depending on the post-secondary institution)
Accessibility – An institution's degree of openness to students seeking admission.
Admission or Entrance Requirements – A set of criteria outlining education, training or experience needed to enter an educational program or occupation. It may include minimum marks, prerequisite courses and/or exam scores.
Advance Credit – The award of credit in given courses or programs on the basis of formal and informal learning experiences including: 1) work experience; 2) maturity/life experience; 3) unstructured educational experiences such as self-study; and 4) structured educational activity.
Alberta-Based Private Not-For-Profit Institution – An institution controlled or managed by a body most of whose members are not selected by a public authority, that is not established for the purpose of distributing profits to individual directors, employees, owners or shareholders. These institutions operate exclusively for social, educational, professional, religious, health, charitable, or any other not-for-profit purpose.
Alberta-Based Publicly Funded Institution – An institution receiving support from the Alberta Government
Alberta Transfer System (ATS) – Those institutions which are members of the Alberta Council on Admissions and Transfer and whose transfer agreements are included in the Alberta Transfer Guide, both online and in print. There are currently thirty-six ATS member institutions.
Applied Degrees – Enhanced career preparation combining theoretical and practical learning offered by some public colleges or technical institutes. These are offered in both 3- and 4- year programs with the option of a year of related work experience. Applied degree programs do not offer direct access to graduate studies, but upgrading is possible.
B
Baccalaureate Degree – See Bachelor’s Degree
Bachelor’s Degree – Generally a 4-year program (length may vary by program and school) offered by universities, some public colleges, technical institutes and private colleges offering approved degrees.
Block Transfer – A group of courses, such as a completed certificate or diploma program, that are accepted for transfer credit into a degree program.
Brokered Program – See Collaborative Program
C
Career Laddering – Career laddering is the process of using a previously earned post-secondary credential to enter another program at a higher level.
For example, a graduate of the Office Administration Certificate can transfer to NAIT into the Office Administration Diploma program. Having completed the diploma at NAIT, a student can transfer to Athabasca University in to the Bachelor of Professional Arts in Communications Degree program.
Certificate – Generally, a certificate program is a 1-year program that prepares students for entry into specific occupations. They are offered primarily at colleges, technical institutes and private colleges.
Collaborative Program – This is an arrangement where one post-secondary school delivers a program on behalf of another. Usually, a public college is delivering an approved degree or specialized diploma program on behalf of a university or technical institute.
Course Equivalent – A course equivalent is a course for which credit is given by the receiving institution; e.g. ENGL 1234 = ENGL 456
Credit – The value given to a course (may be related to the number of hours of instruction)
D
Degree – A degree is awarded when a student completes a program of study (e.g., Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Kinesiology, Master of Science, Doctor of Philosophy) from an accredited post-secondary school.
G
Grading System – The system used for grading post-secondary courses. It may include a four-point scale, letter grade or percentage.
L
Letter of Permission – A Letter of Permission from a student’s home institution guarantees that a course the student has successfully completed at another institution will be counted by the home institution toward the student’s program of study.
O
Official Transcripts – Documents summarizing a student’s previous high school or post-secondary experience. These are usually sent directly from Alberta Education or a post-secondary institution to the admission office of the post-secondary institution the student wishes to attend.
P
Pan-Canadian Protocol on Transferability of University Credits  – A statement describing transferability between universities across Canada.
R
Receiving Institution – Any post-secondary institution a student transfers to.
Reciprocal Bilateral Transfer Agreement – A transfer agreement that has been negotiated between two institutions whereby Institution A agrees to accept the course (or cluster of courses) taken at Institution B in lieu of its own and reciprocally, Institution B agrees to accept the course (or cluster of courses) taken at Institution A in lieu of its own. Therefore, reciprocal bilateral agreements are always two-way agreements. (See Unidirectional Bilateral Transfer Agreement.)
Residency Requirement – The number of credits a student must complete at an institution in order to graduate from that program.
S
Six Sector Model – The Six Sector Model refers to the institutional arrangement of Campus Alberta's twenty-six publicly funded institutions:
- Comprehensive Academic and Research Institution (CARI): Athabasca University, University of Calgary, University of Lethbridge, University of Alberta
- Baccalaureate and Applied Studies Institution (BASI): Grant MacEwan University, Mount Royal University
- Polytechnical Institution (PI): Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT)
- Comprehensive Community Institution (CCI): Bow Valley, Grand Prairie, Keyano, Lakeland, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, NorQuest, Northern Lakes, Olds, Portage, Red Deer
- Independent Academic Institution (IAI): Ambrose, St. Mary's, Canadian, Concordia
- Specialized Arts and Culture Institution: Alberta College of Art and Design (ACAD), the Banff Centre
Although all twenty-six Campus Alberta institutions are members of the Alberta Transfer System (ATS), the ATS is comprised of thirty-eight institutions in Alberta, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and British Columbia.
Selection Criteria – Categories of qualification, capabilities or experiences (academic or other), which can provide the basis for screening and admission or rejection of students to programs.
Sending Institution – Any post-secondary institution a student transfers from.
Shelf Life – A time limit imposed by an institution for granting transfer credit for certain courses. Courses with a shelf life are most common in areas such as nursing, business and computer science where up-to-date curriculum is essential.
T
Transfer Agreement – An agreement between two institutions (a sender and a receiver) that specifies how the sending institution's course or program will be accepted for credit at the receiving institution.
Transfer Courses – Courses designed to transfer to another institution.
Transfer Credit – Courses completed at one post-secondary institution and accepted for credit at a different post-secondary school where the student wishes to continue their studies.
Transfer Student – A student who has attended one ore more post-secondary institutions and is moving to another post-secondary institution to continue their studies.
U
Undergraduate Student – A student enrolled in a program leading to a certificate, diploma or bachelor’s degree.
Unidirectional Bilateral Transfer Agreement - A transfer agreement negotiated between a sending institution and a receiving institution, which is primarily intended to be one-way. In practice, advance credit for courses involved in an agreement usually will be awarded at either institution, particularly when the agreement involves courses that are part of a university transfer program. However, in some cases credit will not be awarded in the opposite direction; for example, Institution A may agree to accept Institution B's cluster of transferable courses in lieu of its own courses and have the agreement entered in the Transfer Guide. However, it might not be appropriate for Institution B conversely to award transfer credits for the cluster of courses if a student with the one course from Institution A presented it for advanced credit assessment. (See Reciprocal Bilateral Transfer Agreement.)
University Transfer Program – The first 2 years of a bachelor degree program taken at a college before transferring to a degree granting institution (e.g. a university)
Unspecified Course – A course that will transfer but is not close enough in content to a receiving institution course to be given transfer credit for a exact course code and instead will be transferred as an option
Upgrading – Adult students taking the high school courses necessary to gain admission to post-secondary studies
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