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Graduate Studies Office
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Transfer of Graduate Credit and Course Revalidation

Transfer of graduate credit and course revalidation are separate issues—students frequently find this confusing. Transfer of credit refers to evaluating and approving graduate credit taken at another institution to be counted toward an IU graduate degree. Course revalidation applies to coursework older than 7 years. All coursework, whether taken at IU or transferred in, is subject to the course revalidation requirements based on the student’s degree program. Approval of coursework for transfer credit does not satisfy the course revalidation requirements.

Transfer of Graduate Credit

Some graduate course work completed at other universities may be transferred into degree and licensure programs at Indiana University. This course work must meet the following requirements:

  • All course work transferred must be from an accredited college or university.
  • An official transcript is required for course work to be transferred
  • No transfer credit will be given for a course with a grade lower than B.
  • Courses graded P (Pass) may not ordinarily be transferred into education graduate programs. Courses graded S (Satisfactory) may be transferred only if a letter is received from the course instructor stating that the student's performance in the course was at or above a grade of B.
  • All transferred courses must be relevant to the student's program of studies.
  • The courses must be approved by a program advisor and by the associate dean for graduate studies.
  • A course description or syllabus may be required in order to judge the appropriateness of course work to be transferred.

Master's degree students must complete a minimum of 27 credit hours of course work at Indiana University. Beyond this, graduate course work may be transferred from other universities. Of the 27 credit hours required at Indiana University, a minimum of 15 credit hours must be earned through the campus awarding the degree.

Specialist degree students must complete 35 credit hours of course work at the Bloomington or Indianapolis campuses of Indiana University. Beyond this, course work may be transferred from other universities or from other IU campuses.

Doctoral students (Ph.D. and Ed.D.) in the 90 credit hour program must complete 60 credit hours of course work at the Bloomington or Indianapolis campuses of Indiana University (this includes dissertation credits). Ph.D. and Ed.D. students may transfer no more than 30 credit hours into an IU doctoral program. Ed.D. students in the 60 credit hour post-master's doctoral program must complete 42 credit hours (including dissertation credits) at the Bloomington or Indianapolis campus. They may transfer in no more than 18 credit hours.

Licensure students are generally required to complete at least half of their course work at the Bloomington or Indianapolis campus of Indiana University.

The form required for students to transfer courses is available in the Office of Graduate Studies and online here.

Course Revalidation

Course work used in graduate degree programs must have been taken recently, or it must be revalidated. Revalidation is a process whereby a student demonstrates current knowledge of course material that was not taken recently. For all graduate degree programs, course work over seven years old must be revalidated. For master's programs, the seven years is counted back from the completion of program course work. For specialist programs the seven years is counted back from the date of approval of the student's program of studies. For doctoral students, the seven years is counted back from the date of passing the oral qualifying examination.

Several methods of revalidating old courses are available:

  • Passing an examination specifically covering the material taught in the course (such as a course final examination). 
  • Passing a more advanced course in the same subject area, taken more recently (within the seven years). 
  • Passing a comprehensive examination (e.g., a doctoral qualifying examination) in which the student demonstrates substantial knowledge of the content of the course. (Ph.D. students may revalidate only two courses by this method.)
  • Teaching a comparable course.
  • Publishing scholarly research that demonstrates substantial knowledge of the course content and understanding of fundamental principles taught in the course.
  • Presenting evidence of extensive professional experience that requires the application of material taught in the course. (This method may not be used in Ph.D. programs.)

Forms for course revalidation are available in the Office of Graduate Studies at Bloomington, Office of Student Services at IUPUI and also online here.

Old courses must be revalidated individually. The revalidation evidence for each course must be assessed by an Indiana University faculty member who teaches the course being revalidated. The revalidating faculty member must be personally convinced, based upon present evidence, that the student has current mastery of basic course concepts and principles.

If the course instructor is not available, a faculty member in the same program specialization area may be substituted. Permission to use a part-time faculty member or a faculty member at another university for course revalidation must be secured from the associate dean of graduate studies at Bloomington or the director of student services at Indianapolis.

Departments have the right to limit the amount of old course work to be included in graduate programs.
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