The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

State law lowers grade requirement for transfer credit

Miami will now give credit to students who earned a D- or better on courses at other colleges.

Burglaries reported in Oxford
2/10/12
Local reaction mixed on Obama’s switch on birth control provision
2/10/12
Police patrolling for overweight trucks
2/10/12
Pentagon to allow women to serve near front lines
2/10/12
County candidates seek to sway voters at forum
2/10/12
> More headlines

By Ariana Williams, Contributing Writer 12:39 PM Friday, March 19, 2010

OXFORD — Miami University is now accepting a lower grade on transferred courses because of a new state law.

The university now must give credit to students who earned a D- or better on courses at other colleges — a change from Miami’s previous policy of accepting grades of a C or above.

The new law requires universities in Ohio apply the same passing grade standard to transfer students as they to do their own students. Since a passing grade at Miami University is a D-, transfer credits must also be accepted at that level.

The change comes as students are transferring more credit from other colleges toward a Miami University degree.

The number of transfer credits accepted at Miami has increased about 10,000 in the last five years up to 38,000 in 2008-09.

The state said the policy change on transfer credit — along with lowering of the score accepted for Advanced Placement tests taken by high school students — is aimed at increasing the number of degrees awarded in Ohio. The state also hopes to make transferring easier so students can graduate earlier and take advantage of more opportunities to study abroad, double major or earn a graduate degree.

“Students come to universities in a lot of different ways with a lot of different backgrounds,” said Rob Evans, of the Ohio Board of Regents.

“We think that a strong transfer system makes for a stronger university system,” Evans said.

Some Miami University officials worry about how students who get credit for transferred courses or AP exams will do in upper level classes. Miami students get an average of 20 credits of the 128 required for a Miami undergraduate degree from transfer and AP exams.

Spanish professor Teresa Tolentino believes students who transfer credits will be “constantly swimming upstream.”

“They’re at such a deficit for the next class,” Tolentino said.

The Miami University community will be debating the changes in transfer and AP credit later in the semester.

“We are going to try and react as proactively as possible,” said Miami University Provost Jeff Herbst.

Although this does not change the standards of admission, it is part of a larger change that incorporates much of what the university will accept in the future.

Herbst believes the state may review these changes in the future, but does not think any sudden reversals or changes will be made.

Share this article