Transfer Credit Policies & Procedures

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The following policies and procedures apply to all on-admission transfer credit students at the University of Toronto Mississauga.

General Eligibility Requirements:

All courses eligible for transfer credit are subjected to the guidelines of the individual departmental and program areas.

May be eligible for transfer credit consideration at U of T Mississauga

  • Diploma or degree level courses taken at a post-secondary institution recognized by the University of Toronto.
  • Secondary school students in a dual enrolment program who are concurrently taking post-secondary courses at an accredited post-secondary institution may be eligible for a maximum of 3.0 transfer credit. Offers holders can contact transfer.utm@utoronto.ca to determine their eligibility.
  • Secondary school students taking courses in an eligible curricula. Please visit High School & Secondary Curriculum for more details. 

Not eligible for transfer credit consideration at U of T Mississauga

  • Business-related courses completed at an institution that is not a member of Universities Canada are not eligible for transfer credit at U of T Mississauga.
  • Courses completed at a recognized post-secondary institution must be completed at the institution in order to be eligible for credit. U of T Mississauga will not recognize courses earned by: challenge for credit, PLAR (Prior Learning And Recognition), or received transfer credits (i.e. from a curriculum or institution U of T does not deem eligible/accredited).
  • U of T Mississauga does not grant transfer credits for courses that are practical, clinical, internship, or pedagogical in nature or for courses that are more appropriate for programs taught in other Faculties of the University (e.g., Graduate Studies, Education, Engineering, Nursing, Dentistry, Medicine, Law).
  • U of T Mississauga does not grant transfer credits for Graduate or professional level courses.
  • Credits completed at private colleges are not eligible for transfer credit consideration at U of T Mississauga.
  • Courses offered through third-party affiliations will not be eligible for transfer credit assessment. Transfer credits from other institutions, including online or distance courses, are granted at the sole discretion of the University of Toronto Mississauga.
  • Courses offered through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), professional training certificates or career level learning are not eligible for transfer credit as they are not degree or diploma level courses (i.e. edX, Coursera, Google Certificates etc.)

Maximum Credits

There are limits to the number of transfer credits a student may receive.

To find out how many transfer credits you may be eligible for, please select the type of institution you are transferring from on the Transfer Credits page.

Equivalencies

No two institutions offer the exact same courses, which is why a transfer credit assessment is required.

You may be eligible for transfer credit for your previous courses that are academic in nature (as opposed to clinical or practical in nature). For example, while a practical course in “Dance” would not be eligible for transfer credit, an academic course in “The History of Dance” may be. 

Please note that courses from other institutions are assessed for potential transfer credit by subject matter experts across every U of T Mississauga academic department (and program area). The assessment of each course, therefore, is subject to the guidelines and standards of the department reviewing the course curriculum. 

Transfer Credits are determined by both the Transfer Credit team and Subject Matter Experts (SME) within the various academic departments at U of T Mississauga. The following are some considerations we review:

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Content and Level

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Credit Weight

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Academic Structure

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Textbook Used

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Grading and Assessment Type

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Grade Achieved (equivalent of 60% minimum)

Exception: CEGEP 65%

There are 3 types of transfer credits that can be awarded:

School Building

Specified

Specified credits are awarded for courses that have significant overlap with a course offered at U of T Mississauga – for example BIO152H5 or PSY100Y5.

Specified credits can be used to satisfy degree, distribution, and program requirements.

School Building

Unspecified

Unspecified credits are awarded for courses that have content that is appropriate within a program area at U of T Mississauga, but the content, credit weight, and/or level does not have significant overlap to warrant a specified credit – for example HIS1**H5 or SOC2**H5.

Unspecified credits can be awarded with or without exclusions.

Unspecified credits can be used to satisfy degree and distribution requirements. These credits typically cannot be used to satisfy program requirements.

 

School Building

Generic

Generic credits are awarded for courses that do not fit within a specific program area or discipline, and for courses completed within the Ontario College system.

Generic credits can be used to satisfy degree and distribution requirements only. They cannot be used towards satisfying program requirements.

Generic credits are awarded using the following course designators:

  • HUM for the distribution requirement in Humanities
  • SCI for the distribution requirement in Sciences
  • SSc for the distribution requirement in Social Sciences

Marking Transfer Credit As Extra

You can request to have eligible generic and unspecified transfer credits without exclusions marked as “Extra” on your academic record. Transfer credits can not be forfeited. More information can be found at the following pages:

 Request to Mark Post-Secondary Transfer Credit as Extra 

Request to Mark Secondary School Transfer Credit as Extra

Grade Requirements

For students transferring from the Faculty of Arts and Science, U of T Scarborough and/or the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, all courses and grades completed there will be retained to your U of T Mississauga academic record.

For all institutions other than the University of Toronto, previous grades will not be transferred to a student’s U of T Mississauga record.

The minimum grade requirement for transfer credit consideration is a 60% (or “C-” where 50% or “D-” is the passing grade). Students with previous CEGEP studies may be eligible to receive transfer credit for academic courses where a minimum grade of 65% is achieved. For institutions that have a different grading scale, we require a full letter grade or 10% higher than the minimum passing grade (i.e. comparable to a “C-” grade at U of T Mississauga). Courses graded as a Pass/Fail or with narrative/qualitative evaluations are not eligible for transfer credit. Exceptions to this rule apply.

Program Requirements

Admitted students who receive 4.0 transfer credits or more are permitted to select Subject POSts on ACORN. Please note that you may be restricted from selecting Type 2 or Type 3 Subject POSts depending on the transfer credits you received, your current grades, and/or the time of year. Once you have received your final, official transfer credit assessment, we recommend speaking with the academic department of the program(s) you are interested in as well as a member of the Advising team in the Office of the Registrar. 

It is important to note that admission to U of T Mississauga does not guarantee enrolment in any specific courses or programs. You will still have to enrol in a program and complete the program requirements.

If you are pursuing a second degree at U of T Mississauga, you may be able to use previous studies (not necessarily transferred) to meet prerequisite or program requirement at the discretion of the department/program area concerned. 

A note on some programs:

Biology

Biology

Cumulative GPA for enrolment in any Biology Program of Study (POSt) is calculated based on a minimum of 4.0 credits completed at UTM with final percentage grades (i.e. CR/ NCR courses do not factor into this calculation).

Commerce

Commerce and Management

Students with transfer credits should consult directly with the Department of Management as they may wish to retake certain program prerequisites if awarded equivalencies. 

Computer Science

Computer Science

All students must complete 4.0 U of T credits before requesting this program of study. Secondary school transfer credits and courses with a grade of credit/no-credit (CR/NCR) will not count as part of the 4.0 credits required for program entry. However, secondary school transfer credits can be used to meet other program entry, prerequisite, and program completion requirements. Students with post-secondary studies are not eligible for this program. Contact the Department of Mathematical & Computational Sciences directly for details. 

Degree Requirements

At least 13.0 credits at the 200+ level (including a minimum of 6.0 credits at the 300/400 level) are required to successfully complete your degree.

While students may receive more than one full-credit equivalency at the 300/400 level, only one (1.0) such credit may be used to fulfill the 300/400-level degree requirement. Please consult the Academic Calendar for more information.

Required Documentation

Course Outlines and Syllabi

If you attended a Canadian university, you can review Transfer Explorer for previously assessed equivalencies. Should any of your previous courses not appear in this database, you will be required to submit detailed course outlines (i.e. syllabi) for us to have the course(s) assessed.  

NOTE: If you attended an Ontario college belonging to the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology (CAATs), you do not need to submit syllabi for your courses.  

All course outlines can be uploaded when submitting your transfer credit application. Alternately, they can be emailed to the Transfer Credit Team at transfer.utm@utoronto.ca - (you must include your full name and U of T Applicant/Student Number in the email). Please do not also email outlines which have been uploaded within the application.

Files containing course outlines should be attached as PDF or Word documents, one file per course.

Official English translations must accompany transcripts and course outlines that are issued in a language other than English. 

NOTE: Failure to provide sufficiently detailed course outlines or syllabi will delay the processing of your transfer credit assessment. It is in your best interest to submit supporting documentation as soon as you make your application and payment.

Official Final Transcripts

Please refer to your JOIN U of T “Terms and Conditions of your Admission” and “Your Admission Checklist” for instructions on what official documents are required and how they should be submitted to U of T Mississauga. 


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