School halts transfers

Beginning next fall, the Kelley School of Business will no longer accept transferred credits for courses taken at any two-year schools for most 200-level required courses, including A201, A202, L201, K201, X204 and business statistics courses.\nJim Murray, associate director of the undergraduate programs in the business school, announced the decision April 10.\n"As part of our efforts to control the competency level and improve the success of students transferring here for business, we are changing our transfer policies," Murray said in the announcement.\nThe principle behind the school's decision could be two-fold, said Mary Anne Baker, an IU representative for the Statewide Transfer Articulation Committee and director of institutional research and assessment at IU-Southeast.\n"One difference between two-year and four-year institutions could be that admissions standards are sometimes lower in two-year schools," she said. "Also, the principle is whether or not the course has essentially covered the material and the knowledge that the students on the main campus receive."\nBaker said an administrator usually evaluates a transfer student's transcript to determine whether transfer credits will count or be accepted toward the particular major. \n"These kinds of decisions are made every time by every institution," Baker said. "Now they're just letting students know up front instead of on an individual basis that these courses won't count."\nMurray said students who want to transfer course credit after this summer can still do so.\nHe said the school will award undistributed hours for the transfer courses and offer placement exams for students bringing in these courses from any two-year school, including Ivy Tech State College and Vincennes University.\nThis is similar to how other schools in the state handle transfer students, Baker said. \nShe said the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University requires students to take a placement test before determining whether they get credit for the course or can continue into the upper-level classes.\n"Institutions vary in how they accept transfer credit," Baker said.\nLauren Kinzer, director of advising for the IU School of Journalism, said the Office of Admissions has requirements most courses must meet before any school can accept the credit transfers. \n"The question always remains whether some courses at satellite schools are truly equivalent to the classes here," Kinzer said. \nShe said even though a class at another IU campus might be named the same, the syllabus, course description and faculty are different. She said that makes the ultimate difference.\nMurray said this policy is still up for review by the STAC in May, but he said he anticipates STAC will approve it.\nSTAC's next committee meeting is scheduled for April 25.