Undergraduate Credit Expiration?

[wareagle]

I've always worked in public higher ed, and have never encountered the situation of outdated credits.  I've advised students who have been out of school for literally decades, working from 30-year-old transcripts, and we always accepted the credits (usually our own).  Grad school, different story.

My current institution, public compass-point former normal school, is now considering trashing credits older than ten years.  We are part of a state system, so I can't believe we would even have the authority to do this, much less the desire.  At the same time, we're encouraging students who've dropped out to come back.  So they can pay for the same classes all over again?

I could see this from a private school, and I believe some private SLACs do have a time limit on degree attainment.  And I can see certain classes in certain disciplines needing re-validation or something like that.  But repeating classes that one has already passed makes for administrative and financial aid nightmares.

Do any of you have experience with this?  Does your institution have a ticking clock on undergraduate credits?

[spork]

No. No.

It's a not-very-well-thought-out attempt at a money grab by some administrator at your university, likely contrary to the state system's governing policy and its accreditation organization.

[polly_mer]

I'm accustomed to the idea of expiring credits if those credits haven't been used for a degree and people are really spreading out their education with a lot of stops and starts.  Ten years was the time range when my husband hit that problem as he turned to college to finish at the state flagship.

[Aster]

I've worked in a lot of U.S. states at a lot of different institutions. Ten years is the standard shelf life for a course (either graduate or undergraduate) for nearly all of my entire professional experience. All that said, I've found that campus registrars will often waive the 10-year shelf life for (some) undergraduate courses if the petitioner makes a strong personal argument, a specific academic department really wants the student, if it's a full moon, if a coin is flipped, etc...

And yeah, if you run an internet search, you'll find all sorts of different answers about this. It is a very gray area.

[Parasaurolophus]

When I was an UG in the early aughts, credits expired at my (Canadian) UG institution if you weren't enrolled in a degree program for something like ten years.

[kiana]

It would make sense if they were going to use them as a prerequisite for something else. Taking calc 2 when calc 1 was 15 years ago would be challenging. I've had people when their prereqs were even a few semesters ago and they struggled horribly.

I don't doubt that a strong and motivated student could do it, but said strong and motivated student should also be able to self-study calc 1 with one of the many excellent online sources sufficiently to convince the dept. chair that they understand enough of it to pass calc 2.

[Ruralguy]

My school is like Aster's experience...it's rare for anyone to even try this past 5 years out, and we want their money for the few courses they still need, so we usually say yes, and I think they have almost always gotten the degree.
To my knowledge this has never happened in the sciences here.

[Vkw10]

My university states that undergraduates are expected to complete in six years.  Degree audit is required for students transferring in or returning after a one year absence. A degree plan is developed, based on appropriate catalog, and credits earned are matched with degree requirements. Some credits only count toward degree if "current", credit earned within last six years. Departments have to submit written justification to university curriculum committee for each course they want designated current. UCC has been known to deny that designation, as policy favors accepting credits. Departments are encouraged to provide a revalidation method. For example, several degrees require a current statistical methods course, but allow revalidation by passing score on assessment administered by testing center.

The system works fairly well to check that students have skills needed to pass upper division courses and licensure exams, without requiring them to pay for too many extra credits. The legislature would get involved if my public university tried a blanket policy of rejecting older credits.

[MarathonRunner]

I'm in Canada. I have two undergraduate degrees. I had to complete the second degree to qualify for licensure in my chosen profession. Some of the courses from my first degree were not accepted for my second degree because they were considered "outdated." One of the courses I had to redo was introductory biochemistry. Originally took it in 1995 and earned an A+. Had to redo it in 2010 because it was considered outdated. The university I attended was not alone in considering some courses outdated. I was accepted to several universities for the same program, and most of them would have required me to retake more than one course as the old courses were considered outdated.

[marshwiggle]

My university states that undergraduates are expected to complete in six years.  Degree audit is required for students transferring in or returning after a one year absence. A degree plan is developed, based on appropriate catalog, and credits earned are matched with degree requirements.

Related to this, at my Canadian university, a student can graduate under the rules in place when they started the program, or under the rules in place when they complete the program. So if  a previously-required course no longer exists, they'll have to graduate under the new rules with all of the required courses for that.

TL;DR It's not just about whether courses expire, but whether degree requirements expire.

[jerseyjay]

At my school (an open admissions public university) I have never heard of such a policy. We have had students transfer credits that are quite old. We have had students take more than 10 years to finish their degree. (And since we have changed our requirements over the years, we have different standards floating around--for students before 2007, for students before 2018, and for current students.)

I do think it would make a difference what the class is and how the student is going to use it.

For a history degree, we would probably count a Calculus class from 15 years ago as an area distribution requirement. I assume that the maths department might be a bit more skeptical on using it as a prerequisite for upper-level courses.  We would probably accept a 15-year old history course for major credit, but history is different in terms of skills than STEM.

[Vkw10]

For a history degree, we would probably count a Calculus class from 15 years ago as an area distribution requirement. I assume that the maths department might be a bit more skeptical on using it as a prerequisite for upper-level courses.

You made me curious, so I checked our catalog. None of the math courses expire, but several of the lower level courses state the prerequisite is "Math XXX completed with a grade of C or higher in the last two years or placement by exam." Our placement scores expire in six months, so I won't be taking calculus anytime soon.

[kaysixteen]

Wouldn't this be because, like it or not, that 15yo calc 101 course content, even if the grade earned were an A+, but never used since, is likely, ahem, well, er... not to be exactly, ah, well...  in one's mind, ah....

A 15yo freshman history survey class, probably a different set of variables is present.

[kiana]

Wouldn't this be because, like it or not, that 15yo calc 101 course content, even if the grade earned were an A+, but never used since, is likely, ahem, well, er... not to be exactly, ah, well...  in one's mind, ah....

A 15yo freshman history survey class, probably a different set of variables is present.

Yes, pretty much.

That being said, if the student insists it IS in their head, most places I've been will allow "Ok, here's a final from last semester, show us you still remember enough calc 1 to pass calc 2" simply because the fundamentals -- the material that will determine whether you can even understand the lectures in calc 2 -- are easily tested on a cumulative final.

[TreadingLife]

Is the situation typically the same for Masters degree programs (let's say Masters in Education) or it is course/degree specific, like the history vs calc. example?