Reciprocity of Individual Courses:
If a student transfers an individual course that meets a Communication Skills, Quantitative Skills or Distribution Requirements at the sending baccalaureate-granting institution for a specific bachelor’s degree, that course is considered to have met that same requirement at South Puget Sound Community College (SPSCC) for an associate’s degree, even if this course does not have an exact equivalent and even if the course credit is awarded through prior learning credit or completed at the 300 or 400 level.
If a student transfers an individual course or courses that meets a Diversity Requirement at the sending baccalaureate-granting institution for a specific bachelor’s degree, that course or courses is considered to have met that requirement at SPSCC for a specific associate’s degree, even if this course does not have an exact equivalent and even if the course credit is awarded through prior learning credit.
Public Baccalaureate Institution Reciprocity Policy
The Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) and the Washington public baccalaureate institutions encourage students to complete an academic associate’s degree following the Direct Transfer Agreement before transferring to a four-year higher education institution. However, there are a variety of reasons students transfer prior to completing the requirements of an associate’s degree and many students do so successfully. For these students and institutions, there are benefits to applying general education credits earned at the baccalaureate granting institution to the requirements for an associate’s degree and being awarded that degree by their community or technical college.
As students transfer credits back to the community or technical college (CTC), it is important to ensure that they are not unduly affected by the differences in the specific degree requirements between the two- and four-year sectors. Based on the existing inter-college distribution reciprocity among CTCs and in an effort to reduce barriers to degree completion for students, colleges of the Washington state CTC system have developed and adopted the following guidelines for reciprocity of transfer coursework from the baccalaureate institutions.
Transcript Notation:
Transcripts will include notation of requirements met by reciprocity. Notations will include the name of the sending baccalaureate institution. It is the student’s responsibility to initiate the reciprocity process and to gather appropriate documentation as needed. However, all institutions agree to make students aware of these provisions when possible and provide students engaging in reverse articulation with a clear contact point and process for pursuing reciprocity.