Transfer of Graduate Credits

A limited amount of graduate work completed at a regionally accredited North American institution prior to, or after matriculation in the School of Graduate Studies at UND, may be applied toward a graduate degree at the University of North Dakota. Graduate work is considered for transfer only on an individual basis and only after the student has completed satisfactory work in residence at UND. Those transfer credits approved by the student’s advisory committee and the Dean of the School of Graduate Studies are included in the program of study for the UND graduate degree and only those transfer credits will be recorded on the UND transcript. Students requesting to transfer credits from an international institution will be required to provide a WES credential evaluation.

The basic purpose of the transfer policies is to ensure that transferred work is of comparable content, level, timeliness, and quality to that which would be taken at UND and included on the program of study for the degree. The following policies are generally applicable to the acceptance of the graduate work for transfer to UND:

  • The work must have been taken at a regionally accredited North American institution.
  • The student must have been enrolled as a Graduate Student.
  • The work must have received graduate credit at the institution where it was earned.
  • The student must have earned a grade of B or better.
  • The work must be less than seven years old at the time the UND degree is awarded with the exception of work that was part of a completed prerequisite degree.
  • The work credited toward a completed master’s degree may be accepted for a specialist’s diploma or doctoral degree.
  • Work beyond the master’s degree must be post-master’s level and from an institution that offers post-master’s degrees in the discipline.
  • Work beyond the master’s degree from an institution offering only master’s level work in the discipline may be applied to the minor or cognate areas.

For Master's degrees requiring up to 36 credits, up to nine credits of transfer credit will be accepted toward the degree. For Master's degree requiring over 36 credits, one-fourth of the credit hours for the degree may be transferred.

For the Ph.D., only 30 credits may be transferred beyond the credits allowed for the master’s degree, i.e., a total of 60 credits, if the other institution offers Ph.D. level courses in the same discipline.

For the Specialist Diploma, only 15 credit hours will be transferred beyond the credits allowed for the master’s degree, i.e., a total of 45 credit hours.

For the D.N.P., if no pre-requisite master's degree has been earned, the amount of transfer credits that will be accepted toward the doctoral degree is a maximum of 21 credits. 

Courses transferred from another university to a certificate program must meet the conditions of this transfer policy.