1 · You send the evidence
A transcript or certificate for each qualification, and the course descriptions or syllabus for anything you want assessed course by course. Documents not in English need a translation.
Admissions
Transfer credit
Study you have already completed may shorten your degree. Here is how it is assessed, and what we need from you.
The principle
You should not pay twice to learn the same thing.
Most eLadder students have studied before — a diploma, part of a degree, a professional qualification, or a programme they had to leave unfinished when work or life changed. Where that study covers what one of our courses covers, it can be credited, and you enter further along than you otherwise would.
Credit reduces both the time and the cost of your degree. It is assessed once, at admission, so you know where you stand before you commit any money.
What can be considered
Four kinds of prior learning.
- Completed courses at another institution. Credit is assessed course by course against the eLadder course it would replace, on content and level rather than on title alone.
- A completed qualification at a lower level. An associate degree entering a bachelor's programme, for example, is assessed as a block rather than course by course.
- Recognised professional certification. Where a certification demonstrably covers the learning outcomes of a course, it can be credited.
- Documented professional experience. Assessed against the same learning outcomes as everything else. Experience is credited for what it demonstrably taught you, never for the years it lasted.
How it works
Four steps, and you hear the outcome in writing.
2 · Academic staff assess it
The assessment is made by academic staff in the relevant department against the learning outcomes of the specific eLadder course, not by an administrator matching titles.
3 · You get the decision in writing
Which courses are credited, which are not, and the reason for each. You receive this before you enrol, so you can decide with the real number in front of you.
4 · You may ask for a review
If you think something has been assessed wrongly, you may ask for it to be looked at again by someone not involved in the first decision, under the grievance policy.
One thing we will not do
We do not credit study we cannot verify.
Credit granted against a document we could not check is credit a future employer or a further institution can challenge, and the student carries that risk, not us. If a transcript cannot be verified we will tell you, and say what would let us proceed.