Scottish University Study

If you have completed some study at a Scottish University within the last 16 years, you are likely to be eligible for credit transfer. You may have completed a certificate of higher education, diploma of higher education, higher national diploma, bachelor’s degree, a postgraduate qualification or a smaller stand-alone qualification or module.

To be eligible for credit transfer your previous study must fulfil the following requirements.

• It should have been completed at the higher education level – this is equivalent to level 7 on the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework or above. 
• Your study should have been credit rated by the institution. A credit-rating is given when a university has assigned a certain number of credits, CATS points or SCQF credits to a module or course. Some older qualifications did not have a credit rating and in these cases the institution will need to provide confirmation that the study was credit bearing – meaning it was presented and assessed to the same standard as a degree programme.

We award credit on the basis of 1 OU credit to 1 SCQF credit.

The level the credit will be considered for transfer at is shown below:

Evidence you will need to provide

With your application you will need to provide an official academic transcript showing the SCQF credits and level for each of the modules you completed. If your qualification was completed before SCQF credits and levels were used then we should still be able to consider your previous study for credit transfer and you will need to provide an academic transcript that shows the modules completed in each year and grades achieved.

If you do not already have a transcript you will need to contact the Registry Department of your previous university to obtain one.

Depending on the OU qualification you want to have your credit transferred to, you may also need to provide syllabus information.

Once we have received the evidence required we will work out the number of credits you have based on the credit rating shown on your transcript. Where your study does not have SCQF credits or levels we can normally award on the basis of 120 credits for each year of successfully completed full-time study (or part-time equivalent). In the absence of SCQF credit ratings year 1 would normally be considered at OU level 1 and years 2, 3 and 4 would be awarded credit at OU level 2.