Are alternative credits only an American thing?

[mojave]

Literally just curious, I have no plans to go to university outside of America (about to graduate anyway ) but I was just wondering if ACE credits are only US based or do they work cross borders, or do other countries have their own standards for "alternative credits".

[rachel83az]

They're literally only an American thing. Trying to "accelerate" your degree isn't really a thing that is done outside of the US. Not even regular CBE courses.

Granted, there are some minor exceptions. Apparently, some universities right now will sometimes accept MOOC courses as portfolio credit, even if it's not official policy to do so. Then there are schools like XAMK where they offer a number of self-paced low-cost options.

[mojave]

They're literally only an American thing. Trying to "accelerate" your degree isn't really a thing that is done outside of the US. Not even regular CBE courses.

Granted, there are some minor exceptions. Apparently, some universities right now will sometimes accept MOOC courses as portfolio credit, even if it's not official policy to do so. Then there are schools like XAMK where they offer a number of self-paced low-cost options.

Aah! Interesting. I wonder why that is? A cultural thing, or perhaps because of US tuition costs its highly desired to accelerate? Honestly has me wanting to research the history of ACE credits.

I wonder if that means other universities in different countries won't recognize a lot of American degree.

[debrag]

Yeah UK degrees are very structured, with few options and you can't really fast forward through them. Not alt credits possible etc.

[allvia]

They're literally only an American thing. Trying to "accelerate" your degree isn't really a thing that is done outside of the US. Not even regular CBE courses.

Granted, there are some minor exceptions. Apparently, some universities right now will sometimes accept MOOC courses as portfolio credit, even if it's not official policy to do so. Then there are schools like XAMK where they offer a number of self-paced low-cost options.

Aah! Interesting. I wonder why that is? A cultural thing, or perhaps because of US tuition costs its highly desired to accelerate? Honestly has me wanting to research the history of ACE credits.

I wonder if that means other universities in different countries won't recognize a lot of American degree.

History of American Council on Education (ACE) - https://www.acenet.edu/About/Pages/history.aspx

[Alpha]

As far as I know, Rachel is right.  There is a bit of an asterisk next to the answer though.  You see the problem for me is that I only speak English and so I am unable to go to any website in Romania or Paraguay or Cambodia and do the research necessary to answer this question definitively.  The places that are English-based (Britain, Australia, Canada, South Africa don't seem to have systems designed to accelerate degree programs.

[rachel83az]

I wonder if that means other universities in different countries won't recognize a lot of American degree.

That depends a lot on the country and the university in question. Some countries are just skeptical of "online degrees" in general. Example: I think that WGU is not recognized at all in Germany. If you want to get a Master's degree in Germany and all you have is a degree from WGU, too bad. A Master's degree from WGU would equate to "no degree" for immigration purposes.

On the other hand, a school like UMPI should be fine.

In either instance, if you qualify to live in Germany for other reasons (like being a US-German citizen who lived in the US long enough to get a WGU degree), having a WGU degree wouldn't necessarily be a deal-breaker for employment purposes. Individual companies can decide whether they want to accept a specific degree as being sufficient for their own internal processes.

[Johann]

They're literally only an American thing. Trying to "accelerate" your degree isn't really a thing that is done outside of the US. Not even regular CBE courses.

Granted, there are some minor exceptions. Apparently, some universities right now will sometimes accept MOOC courses as portfolio credit, even if it's not official policy to do so. Then there are schools like XAMK where they offer a number of self-paced low-cost options.

Aah! Interesting. I wonder why that is? A cultural thing, or perhaps because of US tuition costs its highly desired to accelerate? Honestly has me wanting to research the history of ACE credits.

I wonder if that means other universities in different countries won't recognize a lot of American degree.

If the degree is RA it's generally recognized. YMMV. E.G. Germany - U.S.MBA's are "AACSB or the Autobahn." Quite a few countries (e.g. UK) - evaluators (ENIC-NARIC) will not evaluate NA degrees. In UK Universities can make up their own minds on admitting someone with an NA degree - in other countries, they may not have that option. I don't THINK most foreign evaluators "dig" as to where you got your transfer credit. If a "good" Uni accepted it -- it's as good as Blockchain. ... I THINK.
Of course, if. for some reason they're required to do course-by-course evaluation, that's different. Then they might care very much how you got the credit.

This type of credit won't be applicable to a local degree program, though. Here in Canada, even Athabasca which is RA will not accept CLEP etc. towards its own degrees. But if you have an RA degree, that contains CLEP-earned credit, I think that's OK.

[Jonathan Whatley]

The UK has national qualification frameworks. Europe has the European Qualification Framework. These have some similarities to the alt credit framework of ACE, NCCRS, CLEP, etc.

Other countries have systems or practices of credentials from outside degree-granting institutions laddering into degree programs.

The alt credit programs discussed on DF are almost wholly designed for destination degrees in the US. Their acceptance to destination degrees outside the US hasn't been tested all that much.

[debrag]

The UK has national qualification frameworks. Europe has the European Qualification Framework. These have some similarities to the alt credit framework of ACE, NCCRS, CLEP, etc.

Other countries have systems or practices of credentials from outside degree-granting institutions laddering into degree programs.

The alt credit programs discussed on DF are almost wholly designed for destination degrees in the US. Their acceptance to destination degrees outside the US hasn't been tested all that much.

These are usually used instead of a degree, an equivalent. You may be able to skip 1st year in some cases. Also formal qualifications nothing like ACE unfortunately.