The Ohio Department of Higher Education in 1990, following the directive of the 118th Ohio General Assembly, developed the Ohio Articulation and Transfer Policy to facilitate students’ ability to transfer credits from one Ohio public college or university to another in order to avoid duplication of course requirements. A subsequent policy review and recommendations produced by the Articulation and Transfer Advisory Council in 2004, together with mandates from the 125th Ohio General Assembly in the form of Amended Substitute House Bill 95, have prompted improvements of the original policy. Additional legislation from the 125th Ohio General Assembly also initiated the development of a statewide system for articulation agreements amount state institutions of higher education for transfer students pursuing teacher education programs.

While all state-assisted colleges and universities are required to follow the Ohio Articulation and Transfer Policy, independent colleges and universities in Ohio may or may not participate in the transfer policy. Therefore, students interested in transferring to independent institutions are encouraged to check with the college or university of their choice regarding transfer agreements. In support of improved articulation and transfer processes, the Ohio Department of Higher Education has establish a transfer clearinghouse to receive, annotate, and convey transcripts among state-assisted colleges and universities. This system is designed to provide standardized information and help colleges and universities reduce undesirable variability in the transfer credit evaluation process.

The Ohio Department of Higher Education’s Articulation and Transfer Policy established the Transfer Module, which is a specific subset of a public higher education institution’s general education curriculum in Associate of Arts (AA), Associate of Science (AS), and baccalaureate degree programs. Students in applied associate degree programs may complete some individual Ohio Transfer Module courses within their degree program or continue beyond the degree program to complete the entire Ohio Transfer Module.

The Ohio Transfer Module contains 36-40 semester hours of course credit in English composition, (minimum of 3 semester hours) mathematics, statistics and logic (minimum of 3 semester hours); arts and humanities (minimum of 6 semester hours); social and behavioral sciences, (minimum of 6 semester hours); and natural sciences (minimum of 6 semester hours). Oral communication and interdisciplinary areas may be included as additional options. Additional elective hours from among these areas make up the total hours for a completed Ohio Transfer Module. Courses for the Ohio Transfer Module should be 100- and 200-level general education courses commonly completed in the first two years of a student’s course of study. Each state-assisted university, technical and community college is required to establish and maintain an approved Ohio Transfer Module.

Ohio Transfer Module course(s) or the full module completed at one college or university will automatically meet the requirements of individual Transfer Module course(s) or the full Ohio Transfer Module at another college or university once the student is admitted. Students may be required, however, to meet additional general education requirements at the institution to which they transfer. For example, a student who completes the Transfer Module at Institution S (sending institution) and then transfers to Institution R (receiving institution) is said to have completed the Ohio Transfer Module portion of Institution R’s general education program.

Institution R, however, may have general education courses that go beyond its Transfer Module. State policy initially required that all courses in the Transfer Module be completed to receive its benefit in transfer. However, subsequent policy revisions have extended this benefit to the completion of individual Transfer Module courses on a course-by-course basis.

Transfer Assurance Guides (TAGs) comprise Transfer Module courses and additional courses required for an academic major. A TAG is an advising tool to assist Ohio university and community and technical college students in planning for specific majors and making course selections that will ensure comparable, compatible, and equivalent learning experiences across the Ohio’s public higher-education system. A number of area-specific TAG pathways in meta-majors the arts, humanities, business, communication, education, health, mathematics, sciences, engineering, engineering technologies, social sciences, and foreign languages have been developed by faculty teams.

TAGs empower students to make informed course selection decisions and plans for their future transfer. Advisors at the institution to which a student wishes to transfer should also be consulted during the transfer process. Students may elect to complete the full TAG or any subset of courses from the TAG. Because of specific major requirements, early identification of a student’s intended major is encouraged.

1. Graduates with associate degrees from Ohio’s public institutions of higher education and a completed, approved Ohio Transfer Module shall be admitted to a public institution of higher education in Ohio, provided their cumulative grade point average is at least 2.0 for all previous college-level courses. Further, these students shall have admission priority over graduates with an out-of- state associate degree and other transfer students with transferable and/or articulated college credit.
2. Associate degrees holders who have not completed the Ohio Transfer Module from an Ohio public institution of higher education will be eligible for preferential consideration for admission as transfer students as long as the institution’s admission criteria, such as the minimum academic standards, space availability, adherence to deadlines, and payment of fees, are fairly and equally applied to all undergraduate students.
3. In order to encourage completion of the baccalaureate degree, students who are not enrolled in or who have not earned an Associate of Arts (AA) or Associate of Science (AS) degree program but have earned 60 semester/90 quarter hours or more of credit toward a baccalaureate degree with a grade point average of at least a 2.0 for all previous college-level courses will be eligible for preferential consideration for admission as transfer students as long as the institution’s admission criteria, such as the minimum academic standards, space availability, adherence to deadlines, and payment of fees, are fairly and equally applied to all undergraduate students.
4. Students who have not earned an associate degree or who have not earned 60 semester hours/90 quarter hours of credit with a grade point average of at least a 2.0 for all previous college-level courses will be eligible for admission as transfer students on a competitive basis.
5. Incoming transfer students admitted to a college or university shall compete for admission to selective programs, majors, and units on an equal basis with students native to the receiving institution.

The admission of transfer students by an institution, however, does not guarantee admission to any majors, minors, or fields of concentration at the institution. Some programs have additional academic and non-academic requirements beyond those for general admission to the institution (e.g., background check, a grade-point average higher than a 2.0, or a grade-point average higher than the average required for admission to the institution). Once admitted, transfer students shall be subject to the same regulations governing applicability of catalog requirements as native students. Furthermore, transfer students shall be accorded the same class standing and other privileges as all other students on the basis of the number of credits earned. All residency requirements must be completed at the receiving institution.

To maximize transfer credit application, prospective transfer students must take responsibility for planning their course of study to meet both the academic and non-academic requirements of the institution to which they desire to articulate or transfer as early as possible. The student is responsible to investigate and use the information, advising, and other available resources to develop such a plan. Students should actively seek program, degree, and transfer information; meet with an advisor from both the current and receiving institutions to assist them in preparing a course of study that meets the academic requirements for the program/degree to which they plan to transfer; use the various electronic course/program transfer and applicability database systems, including Ohio Transfer to Degree Guarantee web resources; and select courses/programs at their current institution that satisfy requirements at the receiving institution to maximize the application of transfer credit. Specifically, students should identify early in their collegiate studies an institution and major to which they desire to transfer. Furthermore, students should determine if there are foreign language requirements or any special course requirements that can be met during the freshman or sophomore year. This will enable students to plan and pursue a course of study that will better articulate with the receiving institution’s major.

Following the evaluation of a student transcript from another institution, the receiving institution shall provide the student with a Statement of Transfer and Articulated Credit Applicability (Degree Audit Report). A student disagreeing with the application of transfer and/or articulated credit by the receiving institution must file his/her appeal in writing within ninety (90) days of receipt of the Statement of Transfer and Articulated Credit Applicability. The institution shall respond to the appeal within thirty (30) days of the receipt of the appeal at each appeal level.

NOTE: Admission to English 11103 (Composition I) is determined by placement testing scores. Students without the necessary competencies must enroll in pre-requisite course deemed appropriate. The credits in this course may not be used to meet any part of the General Education Communication Skills requirement. 

*(Not included in Ohio Transfers Module)

NOTE: In addition to this module, each major program will be required to include within the major an appropriate block of instruction in the use of computer productivity skills. This may be a course within the department, outside the department, or scattered throughout a major program’s curriculum.