Non-traditional students, especially those with military experience, often enter a college setting with professional and leadership experience. They have often already earned several education credits, while also possessing skills learned from their military or work experience. Recognizing this, institutions are offering dedicated and innovative initiatives to facilitate the credit transfer process, whether it is through previously earned credits, opportunities to award academic credit for professional experience, or exams to test out of selected subject matters.

There are a variety of approaches taken by institutions when transferring previous professional experience, training, and education into institutional academic credit. To highlight just two, Liberty University has implemented a professional portfolio review process and Purdue University Global offers the ability to earn credit for military training. Every institution must create these programs to match their typical students' needs, organizational structure, and institutional mission.

If your institution has not implemented a program for streamlining degree completion and transferring previous experience and credit yet, know that it will take some real dedication and inspired staff to make it happen, but your institution can offer these same opportunities.

At CCME in January of 2023, Trident University International, a member of the American InterContinental University System (TUI) shared the ins and outs of developing their Fastrac initiative and shared advice for other institutions looking to do something similar. This initiative was created to expedite the degree seeking process for students who have already gained relevant experience and knowledge that can be transferred into institutional credit. This initiative is offered at no additional cost to students.

"Trident University International recognizes that many of our students have acquired knowledge through their employer, military service, or other pursuits" explains Trident Registrar, Abby Dolan. "Trident goes the extra mile to evaluate military training and traditional academic credit to maximize potential transfer credit. We also offer several non-traditional ways to earn academic credits that can accelerate your ability to meet graduation requirements."

One of the 'non-traditional' ways TUI offers academic credit is through 'challenge exams.' Challenge exams, developed in conjunction with faculty and staff, offer the opportunity for students to test out of general education courses. TUI offers eight challenges exams for bachelor's students, including biology, computer hardware, US history, macroeconomics, microeconomics, psychology, sociology, anatomy, and physiology. Students are offered study materials for each exam and are given one try at passing the exam. If the student passes the exam, they earn credit for that course at no cost and do not have to take the class. From June of 2021 through February 20 of 2023, 826 TUI students have attempted challenge exams with a strong pass rate.

Things to Consider When Implementing a Credit and Experience Transfer Program at Your Institution

1. Develop a Clear Idea, Vision, and Goal(s)

The team at TUI stated that its program started when looking for a solution on how best to consistently communicate the wide variety of transfer credit options available to students across different departments. This was the driving force to create a consolidated resource that could be used and referenced by all teams for consistent messaging. With this idea in mind, the next step was to get leadership and marketing at the institution aligned. You need all departments supporting the program, but especially need your marketing team's support to help develop explanatory materials, visuals and webpage content that communicate the options clearly and concisely to students. As the TUI team said, "it must be visible to be real," for staff, faculty, and students.

2. Inter-departmental Communication

The team also noted that effective and consistent communication was key in developing and implementing the program on their campus. Representatives from all departments were involved in the program and were present in the process, there was no working in silos. This meant admissions, the registrar, faculty, financial aid, academic advising, leadership, and others were all represented in the development meetings.

You cannot implement a program of this size with one department or office. It takes a cross-departmental effort. Start meetings with other departments, share your idea(s), and see who also shares your motivation to create such a program at your institution.

3. After Development

After you have taken the time to develop a transfer credit and experience program (TUI mentioned their process took over one year), celebrate with your team and take a moment to be proud of the work you have done for students. However, remember that the work is not done. To maintain a program of this kind, the work will never be done. It will take consistent effort and dedicated team members to keep the program rolling to meet current student needs and to keep up with the evolving professional world.

You will also need regularly scheduled information sessions for new staff members to learn about the program and current staff to refresh their knowledge of it. TUI stressed that each student-facing department at their institution mentions the Fastrac program when meeting with students. This means that every admissions officer, financial aid advisor, and academic advisor on campus must know the ins and outs of the program to explain its benefits appropriately for incoming students.

What are the Real Results?

TUI was proud to share that since the development of Fastrac, in 2022, they celebrated over 900 dual-degree graduates. Since incoming credit at TUI can transfer into undergraduate and graduate level courses, TUI has seen a significant amount of its students graduate and continue working on another degree at TUI.

Since launching their challenge exams in June 2021, 826 students have attempted exams that have resulted in awarding credit for 742 courses at no out-of-pocket cost to students.

Additionally, over the lifetime of Trident's proactive annual Joint Service Transcript (JST) review initiative starting in October 2021 through November 2022, students who received additional credit saved an average of one 8-week course beyond what they received in their initial transcript evaluation when enrolling in the university. This process saves students time and money without students even needing to request a review from the university.

To learn more about Fastrac and advice on how to get your own transfer credit and expedited degree program started, please reach out to Kendra Temple: kendra.temple@trident.edu 

If you have already implemented a program of this kind at your institution, how did you make it happen?

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Military Educational Benefits Military Friendly Institutions Serving Military in HigherEd Veterans Academic Success

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