Use your previous HE study to help you gain an OU qualification.
Please note:Our credit transfer policies may change from time to time. Your study will be assessed under the policy in force at the time that you submit your application.
If you are applying for credit transfer towards one of our postgraduate qualifications you should apply for credit transfer as soon as possible. We recommend that you complete your application for credit transfer before you begin your studies. You should expect it to take around 8 weeks for your application to be processed.
If you are applying for credit transfer towards an undergraduate qualification and you are a continuing student who has already studied towards your qualification or you are registered to study a module which begins before 31st August 2012 you should make your application for credit transfer as soon as possible. You should expect it to take around 8 weeks for your application to be processed.
If you are applying for credit transfer towards an undergraduate qualification and you are a new student who is planning to study for the first time in October 2012 or later please revisit this website in March 2012. The application period for credit transfer towards qualifications beginning in October 2012 opens in mid February. Once the application period opens a deadline for applications will be announced, the deadline is expected to fall in August.
Please go to 'How to apply', where you can download Essential Information sheets which explain how you can apply for credit transfer.
Please note that you should not actually submit your application until you have all the relevant documentation as an incomplete application will be returned to you.
This website shows the maximum amount of credit transfer possible for the particular qualification. We will award you the full amount of credit transfer to which your previous study entitles you, but please note that this may be less than the maximum amount of credit transfer that is shown on this website.
The credit shown in the 'Your Previous Study' section of the website assumes that the full programme of study was completed. If you were granted exemptions and/or compensated passes for some parts of the qualification, we shall award credit only for the part of the programme which you successfully completed with that particular institution. If the study which granted exemption is also eligible for credit, we may be able to give an additional award for that.
You will need to provide evidence of successful completion of study (an academic transcript) and syllabus/outcomes information which shows the academic content of your studies. If you do not have these documents in your possession, you will need to obtain them from the institution where you completed the study.
The syllabus for the time you studied - this document gives an outline of the courses/modules you studied, and detailed information on the subjects covered.
Your original academic transcript - this is the official document from your previous University which confirms the courses/modules you took and the results you obtained.
For study completed at a UK university or other degree-awarding body, BEC/TEC/BTEC/Edexcel or SCOTBEC/SCOTEC/SCOTVEC/SQA we have a form that may help you obtain this information. This form is available to download from the website under the entry for each of these qualifications in 'Your Previous Academic Study'; alternatively you can 'Contact Credit Transfer' to obtain one.
You can now check online to see if we have received your credit transfer application. Simply go to your Student Home page: the date that we received your application will be shown in "your qualifications" section.
Yes - if your credit transfer application includes study at an overseas institution, you must send us an official translation of the certificate, academic transcript and syllabus. Open University Co-ordinators can authenticate your original documents or translations, but cannot provide translations.
You can send us evidence of more than one period of study but each period will be assessed separately. We can add together awards for different periods of study, as long as content is not duplicated, but the total award must be within the rules for the OU qualification which you are applying for credit towards. For instance for the BA/BSc degree, there is a restriction of a total of 120 credits at level 1.
We will send you an email to let you know when we have processed your application. This email will direct you to look at your StudentHome page, where the outcome of your application will show as a pdf document called "Your Credit Transfer Award" on the "Qualifications" page.
Please note that you will receive an email and be able to see "Your Credit Transfer Award" document for each of the OU qualifications you are awarded credit transfer towards. For most undergraduate degrees, we assess your study towards the BA/BSc Open degree as well as your chosen named degree - this is because you may be able to benefit from more credit towards the Open degree.
Your "Credit Transfer Award" will detail how many points you have been awarded, and their academic level. Credit is awarded in multiples of 5, and the academic level of the credit is specified (undergraduate level 1, undergraduate level 2, and postgraduate level). If your previous study was at Level 3, we will count this "down" to Level 2 because the Level 3 study requirements for OU awards must be met by OU study or collaborative course credit (not by credit transfer).
For awards of transferred credit towards the BA/BSc Open degree, we specify a "designation". This will be "BA" (Bachelor of Arts), "BSc" (Bachelor of Science), or "equal BA/BSc weighting", depending on whether your study can count towards an Arts (BA Open) degree, Science (BSc Open) degree, or either.
The terminology we use to describe credit transfer is changing. If you have applied for credit transfer recently, you might be in the brief transitional period when we change from using the terms "course-related credit" and "full-rate credit" to the new terminology of "module exemption" and "general credit exemption".
Please see below for a fuller explanation of all 4 of these credit transfer terms to help you understand what credit you have been awarded towards your chosen OU qualification:
Basically,
Module exemption: means that you have been exempted from a particular OU module in recognition of your previous study. Your prior study must be at, or equivalent to, the UK academic level of the OU module/s you are being exempted from, and considered to be broadly in-line with the learning outcomes of your chosen OU qualification. Your Credit Transfer Award will specify which OU module/s you have been exempted from studying towards your chosen OU qualification.
General credit exemption: means that you have been exempted from studying the specified amount of credit at the given academic level towards this OU qualification. This type of credit transfer is awarded if your previous study is at, or equivalent to, the UK academic level of the OU module/s concerned and is considered relevant to this OU qualification in terms of subject and/or skills development. This type of credit transfer differs from module exemption in that it does not exempt you from any particular OU module/s. Your Credit Transfer Award will indicate the number of credits you have been exempted from, and at what level/s, towards specific components of the qualification.
Course-related credit was awarded only if your previous study was considered to be equivalent to (matched by 80%) the level, content, and breadth of a particular OU course. Course-related credit is effectively an exemption from that particular OU course or courses towards your chosen OU qualification in recognition of your previous study.
Full-rate credit was awarded if your previous study was at, or equivalent to, the UK level of the OU study concerned, and was considered relevant in terms of subject and/or skills development. Unlike course-related credit, your previous study does not have to match the subject content of any particular OU course, but it does not exempt you from a specific OU course. Full-rate credit exempts you from the specified number of points at the specified academic level towards your chosen qualification.
This varies depending on the structure of the OU qualification you are applying for credit towards.
For example, towards the BA/BSc Open (Honours) degree, the maximum award of transferred credit is 240 credits, and towards the BA/BSc Open degree, the maximum award of transferred credit is 200 credits. Towards Master's degrees, the maximum credit transfer allowed is usually 60 or 90 credits. Full details for each qualification are given in the Essential Information sheets in the 'How to apply' section. In all cases we award credit in multiples of 5 credits at the level appropriate to your previous study.
When making awards of transferred credit, we do not take into account the grades you achieved in your previous study. The final classification of your OU Honours degree will be based entirely on the grades you achieved in your OU modules or collaborative courses.
The level of study dictates the way in which it can be used within an OU qualification. For instance, if you wish to complete your BA/BSc Open degree or BA/BSc Open (Honours) degree within the minimum credits requirement, no more than 120 of these credits can be at level 1.
Regardless of how much transferred credit you are awarded, you must still include some credit from Open University study at specified levels, for example:
The level 3 elements of OU qualifications must be met by OU study (or by collaborative courses). So, although we recognise that certain qualifications listed on the 'Your Previous Study' section do contain credit at level 3, any award of credit for such study will appear on your student record as level 1 and/or level 2, and it will not be counted at level 3 for award completion purposes.
Although we recognise certain qualifications as containing credit at Level 3, any award of transferred credit will be made at Level 1 and/or 2 only. This is because the Level 3 study requirements for OU awards must be met by OU study or collaborative course credit. If you specifically request it, we can indicate on your academic transcript that you have completed Level 3 study elsewhere, but such study will not be counted at level 3 for award completion purposes.
Yes. You will be able to count a maximum of 90 credits of postgraduate study towards a Bachelor’s degree, whether from transferred credit, OU modules, or a combination of the two.
This part of the award notification will list any OU modules which you will not be allowed to study if you want to use your credit transfer towards this qualification. This is called a "prohibition" - we have prohibited you from taking particular OU modules in addition to your credit transfer award because your previous study for which you have been awarded credit significantly overlaps with these modules.
Yes. If you are awarded credit towards the BA/BSc Open degree, you may be prohibited from also counting certain OU modules that substantially overlap in content with your previous studies. You will be notified of any prohibited modules at the time that you receive your credit transfer award. For other OU qualifications, an award of transferred credit may restrict your choice of modules in various ways.
Yes - we can reassess your award at a later date if you wish to move to another OU qualification; if you complete additional study that may be eligible for credit transfer; or if you can provide further details about your study which was not available when you originally applied for credit transfer.
We will reassess your whole profile of previous study. If the prevailing regulations are less favourable you may not get additional credit but your award will not be reduced.
If you cannot match your study to any of the qualifications listed in 'Your Previous Study' this could be because the study was not at the Higher Education level or possibly because the institution was not in a position to provide the detailed information we need. We have included most key qualifications on this website but, if you feel that your qualification should have been included, please contact the Credit Transfer Centre for advice: contact details are in the 'Contact Credit Transfer' section.
If you would like someone to talk you through the Credit Transfer scheme contact us at the same address.
Please note:
Although we recognise certain qualifications as containing credit at level 3, any award of transferred credit will be made at level 1 and/or 2 only, as the level 3 study requirements for OU awards must be met by OU study or collaborative course credit.
Credit cannot be awarded for study undertaken before January 1971. Towards some OU qualifications, there are further time restrictions - please check the How to apply section.
