Credit Transfer

Any study taken overseas must be for credit!

In order to be eligible to undertake an ECU exchange, you are required to find units at your host institution that will be credited towards your degree. The first step in this process is to obtain an outline of the ECU units you would have been studying at the time of your exchange.

Once you have an idea of the units you need to complete you should look for similar units at your preferred host institution. This will require you to do a bit of research. The easiest way of obtaining up-to-date information on the units offered by y our host institution will be via their website. You may also find it useful to visit the ECU resource room which has a lot of information on each of ECU's partner institutions. The Exchange and Study Abroad team is also happy to provide you with additional information and advice.

Once you have located unit information for your host institution, you will need to print this information off and take it, along with the ECU Exchange Credit Transfer form to your ECU Course Coordinator for approval. You must have the units you propose to take at the host institution approved by your Course Coordinator before you submit your application for exchange! By ensuring that any units studied overseas will be credited towards your ECU degree the time taken to complete your degree will not be extended.

It is advisable that you have at least 8 units approved prior to you leaving for your exchange as you may, upon arrival at your host institution, find it necessary to change your enrolment. This could be for a number of reasons including cancelled classes, clashes with other classes or changes in timetables. In some cases the timetable may not even be available prior to you submitting your application. Ensuring that you have plenty of units approved prior to departing will ease any stress if changes need to be made.

After your exchange application has been submitted the ECU Study Abroad and Exchange Office will enrol you in the ECU units listed on your Exchange Credit Transfer form. If after your arrival at the host institution you find it necessary to change your initial selection of units, it is your responsibility to ensure that your ECU Course Coordinator approves any such changes. To do this you will need to email or call your Course Coordinator and have them complete another ECU Exchange Credit Transfer form. This can be time consuming and may cause you some anxiety so if possible try to avoid this by having a number of units pre-approved before leaving Australia . Be sure to keep copies of your ECU Exchange Credit Transfer form for your own records!

When you have completed your study at the host university, you will receive an official transcript from the host university. You will need to speak to the International Department at your host institution to see if this is happens automatically or if there is a process that you need to follow. An official copy of this transcript will need to be sent to the ECU Study Abroad and Exchange Office in order for your grades to be uploaded on the student record system. For each successfully completed unit you will receive an Exchange Pass (XS) against the equivalent ECU unit. For example if your Course Coordinator has agreed to give you credit for the ECU Unit Marketing 101 for successful completion of Marketing Principles at your host institution then your academic transcript will show a XS against Marketing 101. All failed units will also be recorded on your student record with an Exchange Fail (FX). Please be aware that ECU will not translate overseas grades and no matter how high the grade received overseas, the result at ECU will be an XS. However a comment is made on transcripts of all students who have been on exchange to explain the source of exchange results e.g. 'Exchange passes awarded for semester 1, 2006 for study completed at Dalhousie University , Canada through ECU's Student Exchange Program.'