Foreign Credits to American Credits

Greetings.

Might anyone be able to supply, or point me to, an accurate conversion chart that would convert USQ/Technikon SA/other Metric "credits" to Quarter Hour (preferred) or Semester Hour credits? <g> Something like the Q/H to S/H chart that appears on http://www.ohiou.edu/summer/02-03/geninfo/admission.html, BUT for Metric Credits.

Thanks in advance!


Cordially,
Richard Kanarek

 

Converting Foreign Credits

I don't know about how individual course work is transferred but the following is a publication you might want to check out. The National Science Foundation and the US. Department of Education has a book available online for free about foreign degrees. "Mapping the World of Education........The Comparative Database System (CDS)" is informative. The author is E. Stephen Hunt, PH.D.

Go to the National Science Foundation (NSF) website and enter a search for "Mapping the World of Education."

http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/mapping/start.htm

 

Credit Evaluation Service

Education Credential Evaluation International (ECEI)
111 Market Place #1050
Baltimore, MD 21202
(410) 347-7700
www.ecei.org

 

Again, don't know about individual credit transfer but if you want an idea of how foreign grades convert to the American system then World Education Services provides an online grade conversion guide:

http://www.wes.org/gradeconversionguide/

Click on the drop down menu in the top left hand corner to choose your country.

 

Harvard and Columbia university grades and credit equivalency tables.


National Council on the Evaluations of Foreign Educational Credentials.

You may want to contact:

Dr. J.N. Prade Harvard Institute on College Admission'95, author of a published paper on foreign students at Harvard FAS, University of Paris II'76, former judge at the Paris court, Chevalier du Mérite National, CMA, PBB, AACRAO (American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers) and NAFSA Conference speaker on foreign Credential evaluations

Presenter of foreign Diploma equivalencies at NAFSA
conferences.

http://www.auap.com/eval.html

They however have a dynamic approach that take into account the specificity and academic traditions of each country. (For example, in France an 11/20 in French language should be considered higher that the same grade in Mathematics)

 

Greetings.

Thanks for the contributions!

I don't want to seem ungrateful for the supplied information, but may I respectfully point out that my originally post sought information on comparing the credit systems of foreign (particularly SA) undergraduate colleges to the semester hour system that predominates in the USA.

For example, the combination of the two classes "Mathematics I" & "Mathematics II" offered by Technikon SA exhausts the contents of a math book thick enough to stop a .45 Cal slug fired at short range. <g> Each class is valued at being worth 0.1 credits (yes, 1/10 a credit) by Technikon SA, with the total value of the pair being 0.2. Clearly Technikon SA isn't going by the Semester Hour system. I believe that the Australian institution USQ also rates its classes on an odd, metric credit system <g>, however I do not propound that both institutions uses identical credit systems (I have not made a comparison).

It would appear that the formula for converting SA college credits to their American equivalent is as follows:
[South African Credits] * K = [US Semester Credits]
where "K" is a numeric constant
Might anyone know what "K" is?


Cordially,
Richard Kanarek

 

Richard,

Maybe you could find out by finding out how many classes are in a program (Btech for example). Let's say there are 20 courses(subjects as they call them) in a Btech (I honestly can't tell you how many courses there are because I got SOOO lost trying to read the curriculum):

Now, let's take 20 courses and apply it to a semester hour system:

20 courses = 120 SH

Would make each course 6SH credits each .

I don't think A school will just take the course, convert it to SH (or QH's) and transfer it in as is. I think they would look at the Syllabus for the course. See how much is covered and match them up to their own particular courses.

Example:

Mathematics I from Techikon rated @ .1 credits (MH metric hours?)

Let's say this course covers precalculus algebra and trigonometry. I think the school would just apply your transfer course to College Algebra (3sh) and Trigonometry (3sh).

Of course, this is all speculation and I know I didn't answer your question; but, maybe finding out the credit conversion isn't necessary. Finding out what the course covers is what you may need.

Best Regards,
Bill

 

Dear Bill:

Thanks for the reply!

While *perfectly* reasonable, there are two reason's why I didn't use the method you outlined:
1) If there is an established Metric<->Imperial credit conversion formula, it would be far better to be informed of it than to attempt to recreate it.
2) A SA BTECH degree includes many courses similar to those that are part of a US Bachelor's degree, but they are frequently named differently, and there are indeterminately fewer of them. Further, it would seem (???) that each individual SA course covers a wider range of material than a similar, single US course, which may also help explain why there appear to be fewer of the SA courses.

As I intend -- if I can only get the paperwork processed in time!!! -- to take one or more TSA math courses, and transfer the credit to COSC, I guess I'll eventually get at least an empirical idea of how credits transfer. This assumes I pass the TSA course(s); if I don't, I have more to concern myself with than global educational peculiarities. <g>


Cordially,
Richard Kanarek

 

Dr J. N. Prade is up to no good, I'm afraid.
http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13336