Legal Studies Program
Transfer Information
General Education:
Institutional and state policies govern the transfer of general education credits and are found in the catalog.
Transferring Credit for the General Education Requirement (Articulation Policy):
East Central participates with certain other Oklahoma institutions in a reciprocal transfer agreement. By virtue of this agreement a student who has completed his or her general education requirement and received an associate degree in Arts or Science at one of the participating Oklahoma junior colleges may fulfill East Central University's general education requirement by transferring his or her credit to ECU. An associate degree in Arts and Science from other Oklahoma institutions makes the same general education breadth requirements of ECU. An Applied Science Degree from other institutions does not have the same general education breadth requirements of ECU; thus, does not come within the articulation agreement. Transferring credit for general education does not eliminate or otherwise affect any of the following ECU requirements: (1) prerequisites, either as courses, grades, or other particulars; (2) the requirement peculiar to any given program, including the specific requirements in degree majors and minors and designated related work in these areas; (3) the requirements for teacher certificates. If significant changes have occurred in degree programs since the student earned transfer credit, he or she may have to earn other credit. Not included in this transfer arrangement are vocational and technical junior college programs and other programs not primarily designated for students intending to transfer to bachelor's degree programs.
Transferring Credit from Accredited Institutions: A student may transfer from approved institutions up to 94 semester hours of approved credit toward a degree or a program. No more than 64 hours of the transferred credit may be earned at junior colleges. No more than 32 hours of the transferred junior college credit may be earned at one-year junior colleges. A student may transfer credit from a junior college only if the credit is in courses that are lower-division courses at East Central.
Transferring Credit from Unaccredited Institutions: After attempting at least fifteen hours at East Central with a grade average of "C" or higher, a student may ask to have credits transferred from unaccredited institutions. If his or her request is approved, he or she may transfer credit generally on the basis of credit acceptance policies described in :Transfer Credit Practices of Designated Educational Institutions," a publication of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. Credit is evaluated on a course-by-course basis and is usually granted only toward specific requirements in the general education, major and/or minor areas.
Evaluation of Courses: The evaluation and acceptance of general education courses for transfer credit are done solely by the university Registry office. In addition to giving transfer credit through the Articulation Agreement, as mentioned above, transfer credit is only allowed for general education courses that are equivalent to courses found in the general education requirements of the university. This is done on a course by course basis. Maintaining the breadth of general education transfer credits is assured since courses between academic disciplines cannot be approved as equivalent course substitutions.
Other than General Education:
Statewide Transfer Initiative: In addition to the policies defined above, the OSRHE have initiated a statewide transfer matrix that identifies equivalent courses from all state higher educational institutions. This permits both students and university officials to readily determine course equivalencies in general education as well as many academic disciplines.
Legal Studies "legal specialty" coursework Transfer Policy:
This policy is considered an "internal" policy and is not normally published. It is subject to change. Please consult the Program Director for current information.
Each request to transfer legal specialty course credit completed at other institutions is referred by the University's Registry office to the Director of Legal Studies. The policy established by the Director is that no more than nine (9) semester hours of legal specialty courses as defined by the ABA from an ABA Approved school will be transferable to apply to the major requirements from other accredited institutions. Accredited institutions are defined in the ECU catalog. This policy is implemented on a course by course basis for each student. The Director of Legal Studies compares the other institutions course catalog description and syllabus, in an effort to determine equivalency. The Director primarily focuses on two concerns in this process: First is whether or not ECU has a course that is equivalent in content to the course that would be transferred. Second, the Director seeks to assure that courses with similar content to those in the ECU program were taught at the same level of the offering at ECU. When a transfer course either is not offered or offered at a higher level of instruction at ECU, the Director does not approve the request and the course is then applied under elective credit, thus still counting toward the required number of hours for graduation but not as fulfilling program major requirements. If course equivalency is proven, the request is approved and a Course Substitution form is completed and forwarded to the Registry Office for transfer of course credit to be applied to the major requirements.