How do you get your study abroad credits to be recognized?
No doubts that studying abroad is great. However, what might not be as great is losing one semester or a year of study because of your free mover experience overseas. How can you prevent that? By asking two very important documents to your study abroad coordinators: the learning agreement and the transcript of records. Those documents guarantee you the credit recognition, of the courses followed abroad, towards your home university’s program.
Learning agreement
The learning agreement is a standard document given to every student leaving for short-term mobility. Its purpose is to be a written proof of agreement on your study abroad program between the two institutions: the one you temporarily leave, and the one you join. It is made by a list of exams/courses that you are going to take at the selected study abroad institution. Those courses are the equivalent of some other ones that you were supposed to follow at your home institution, which are written on the document too. Basically, it states that you are going to take those courses abroad instead of some other ones at your home university. So, once you come back, those courses are going to be fully counted into your native study program. As written in the application process, you should ask for this document before leaving.
Transcript of records
How are those courses recognized once you come back? With a proof that you actually made them, which is the transcript of records.
It is given by the selected study abroad university once you finish your free mover semester, and contains a list of courses that you followed with a pass/fail or numerical/alphabetcal grade (it depends on the country and on the courses). You just need to give it to your home university’s international office/coordinator along with your learning agreement which, using a conversion table, will count those credits as you have taken them at your home university.
