Institutions & Transfer Equivalencies
Two related things: the list of institutions students transfer credit from, and the saved equivalency library that says what a given course from a given institution counts as here.
| Screen | Route | Permission node |
|---|---|---|
| Institutions | /admin/institutions | ADMIN.INSTITUTIONS |
| Institution Types | /admin/institution-types | ADMIN.INSTITUTION_TYPES (migration 239) |
| Transfer Equivalencies | /records/transfer-equivalencies | RECORDS.TRANSFER_EQUIVALENCIES (migration 241) |
| Credit Evaluation | /records/credit-evaluation | RECORDS.TRANSFER_CREDITS |
Migration 242 moved the equivalencies node out from under Credit Evaluation, so it stands on its own in the menu rather than being buried.
Institutions
records.institutions (migration 240) replaced free-text sending-institution names on transfer credits with real rows. 39,030 institutions are on file, all imported from Colleague (source = 'ODS').
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Name | |
| Type | See below — this is where four-year status comes from |
| CEEB code | The College Board institution code |
colleague_inst_id | The Colleague identifier the importer keys on |
| Address, phone, email | state_province_id and country_id are real references |
| Default credit system | What credits from this institution are assumed to be measured in |
| Attendance count | How many students on file attended |
| Notes, Active |
Because every row is ODS-sourced, edits made here are subject to the same rule as elsewhere: the nightly importer reconciles to Colleague, so treat Colleague as the owner of institution identity and use this screen for reading and for the fields Colleague does not supply.
Institution types, and where "four-year" lives
records.lookup_institution_type (migration 238) carries two behavioral columns alongside the usual lookup columns:
is_four_yearis_post_secondary
Four-year status is declared at the type, not derived from the institution
Migration 237 imported Colleague's institution types and classified four-year status at the type level. So an institution is four-year because its type says so — PC (Private Coll/Univ), UC (Public Coll/Univ) — not because anything about the individual row was inspected.
This matters for degree audit. A transfer credit from an institution whose type has no four-year classification on file is not counted for or against an upper-division requirement, rather than being guessed at in either direction.
Types include AC Adventist Coll/Univ, PC Private Coll/Univ, UC Public Coll/Univ, IC International College/Univ, CC Community College, CCC California Community College, JC Junior College, TT Trade/Technical, MS Military School, and a family of Adventist academy codes (AA, AP, AL, AW).
The equivalency library
records.transfer_course_equivalencies (migration 240) is a saved mapping: this course, at this institution, equals that course here. 42,095 equivalencies are on file, against 196,400 transfer credit rows.
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Institution | Which institution this mapping is for |
| Source course code, title | As the sending institution names it |
| Source credits, source credit system | Semester or quarter hours, per the sender |
| Equivalent course | The local course it maps to |
| Credits awarded | What the student receives here |
| Minimum grade | Below this, the equivalency does not apply |
| Sort order, Active | Several mappings can exist for one source course |
colleague_equiv_id | The Colleague identifier, where imported |
| Notes |
Once an equivalency is saved, evaluating the same course for the next student is a lookup rather than a judgement.
Batch entry
Credit Evaluation supports entering a transfer student's whole record at once rather than one course at a time. Courses with a saved equivalency are resolved automatically; the rest are presented for a decision, and that decision can be saved back into the library so the next student benefits.
Credit systems
An institution has a default credit system, and an equivalency records the source credit system explicitly. Quarter hours and semester hours are not interchangeable, and records.credit_system_conversions holds the conversion. Set the institution default correctly and the common case needs no per-course thought.
Related
- Transfer Credits — the registrar's workflow
- Requirements — how transfer credit meets a requirement
- Degree Audit — including the four-year rule above
- Lookup Tables — behavioral lookup columns generally