Transfer of Graduate Credit

Students matriculated in advanced degree programs must petition to have previously earned graduate credits from other institutions transferred toward their University of Hawai‘i at Hilo graduate degrees within their first semester at UH Hilo. Using the Graduate Division’s Petition to Substitute, and/or Waive Courses-Graduate form, students submit this petition to their graduate program. A copy of the official transcript from the other institution must be on file with the Graduate Division, and a course description or syllabus should be provided by the student.

Credits petitioned for transfer must be relevant to the student’s UH Hilo degree program, must have been earned at a regionally accredited university, must not have been used to satisfy the requirements of another degree, and must have been earned in graduate-level courses for which the student earned at least a B. In cases where the transferring institution awards Credit or No Credit instead of a letter grade, the course may be eligible for transfer if the transferring institution awards Credit when the student has earned the equivalent of at least a B grade had a letter grade been used. In cases where a graduate student wishes to take graduate coursework elsewhere for transfer credit during their tenure at UH Hilo, the course work must be pre-approved, using the Petition to Substitute, and/or Waive Courses-Graduate form, by the student’s primary academic advisor and graduate program chair. Petition for transfer of these credits must be completed within a semester of completion of the course work, and will otherwise be subject to the same regulations as credits petitioned for transfer from before the student’s acceptance to UH Hilo.

Credits earned through correspondence courses or through courses or experiences offered under the auspices of proprietary schools, business or industrial training programs, or schools conducted by federal agencies such as the Department of Defense normally are not considered for transfer.

Courses taken more than five years prior to matriculation in the Graduate Division are accepted only when the graduate program chair attaches a statement justifying the transfer.

The graduate chair in the student’s program forwards all approved petitions to the Graduate Division for final approval. Approved transfer credits will be included on the student’s official Graduate School transcript as a single entry of total credits accepted in transfer. Letter grades from transfer credits are not considered in the determination of grade-point average.

Limitations on the number of credits acceptable in transfer are set in the first instance by the minimum residence requirement of 24 credit hours for any advanced degree; transfer credits cannot be applied toward the residence requirement. For example, for a master’s program requiring a minimum of 30 credit hours, no more than six transfer credits may be applied toward the degree. When graduate programs require more than 30 credit hours, the Graduate Division may accept a correspondingly larger number of transfer credits.