Credit transfer

One particular area is credit transfer. There are different types of credit transfer and only one of these can be decided by the examiner.

• Credit for a whole course within a programme
• Accreditation (validation) of real competencies in connection with access to studies
• Credit transfer within part of a course

KTH's Rules of Delegation (In Swedish) describe who has decision-making authority for various decisions. It states that credit transfer within part of a course is delegated to the Head of School, who may in turn delegate it to the Director of First and Second Cycle Education or Director of Third Cycle Education, who may in turn delegate it to the Examiner. Your school has its own delegation rules which tell you if the Head of School has sub-delegated the decision on credit transfer within part of a course to the examiner, which is normal.

The actual process of credit transfer (In Swedish) starts with the student applying to the education administration to have previous studies or real competence credited as one or more elements in a course. Please note that the examiner cannot decide on credit transfer for an entire course (i.e. all elements of a course), but such a decision is normally taken by the Director of First and Second Cycle Education or the Programme Director. 

There are currently no central rules or recommendations for the criteria to be met for a credit transfer, other than what is stated in Chapter 6, Sections 6-7 of the Higher Education Ordinance Links to an external site. (In Swedish). Equivalent education from KTH as well as from other Swedish and foreign higher education institutions must be credited. In the assessment, it is appropriate to look at the course objectives, course content, and course level. Crediting real competence is often difficult, and if you are faced with it, it is a good idea to take support from colleagues and the Director of Studies.

If the application is approved, the education administration will enter the credit in Ladok, and the examiner will then certify it. A decision to reject an application for credit transfer in whole or in part can be appealed by the student, unlike a grading decision.

A credit for a module in a course does not have a grade. If the module has a graded rating and the rating is included in the consideration for the final grade in the course, the examiner still needs to award a final grade. There are currently no central guidelines or recommendations on how this should be done.  If there are other components that determine the final grade, the grade can be based on these alone.

If only pass/fail elements are not credited, the examiner may examine whether the grade(s) of the credited course can be translated into an equivalent final grade for the course using the grading criteria of the course credited. If there is no evidence to show what the grade for the credited programme represents or if the criteria are incompatible with the KTH course grade criteria, there is no support for awarding a grade higher than E.

Decisions on credit transfer for an entire course are not made by the course examiner, but if it concerns a credit transfer of a type that has not been done before, the examiner is often consulted as an expert.

UKÄ's guidance on credit transfer Links to an external site. (In Swedish)