Credit for previous study

Many students come to UON with a wealth of knowledge and formal learning, which is why we offer the chance to be awarded 'credit'.

If you receive credit it can reduce the length of time you study, which reduces the amount you pay in fees and helps you get your degree sooner.

Don’t forget to include all of your previous studies. If some of the courses you have studied don’t translate exactly into specific UON courses, but you have electives in your degree, you may be able to gain some credit in those areas.


What is credit?

You may be awarded credit if you can formally demonstrate that you have already achieved the learning outcomes, and covered the content, of our courses/ subjects through formal learning such as TAFE or university studies.

Depending on the details of your prior studies, you may be eligible to receive:

  • Specified Credit: granted towards specific courses of a program of study. For example core courses or directed courses.
  • Unspecified credit: granted towards elective or directed courses within a program of study.
  • Credit based on Articulation agreements: enables students to progress from a one qualification to another with admission and/or credit in a defined qualification pathway. These can be viewed in the Credit transfer catalogue.
  • Exemption: In certain circumstances, an assessment of a student’s prior learning may result in a student being exempted from certain program requirements. The Program Convenor must specifically identify courses required in lieu of the exempted course/s.

Credit dates

It’s best to submit your credit application at the same time you are applying for admission or for an internal transfer between programs.

While you can apply for credit at any time, if you apply later than two weeks before the start of term, your application may not be finalised by the relevant census date.

View term dates

The sooner you apply for credit, the sooner you will have an outcome and know what to enrol in!


Credit transfer catalogue

To simplify the process of finding out what credit you can receive for your previous studies, we have created the Credit transfer catalogue.

The catalogue allows you to search your possible credit transfer by either the institution or program you previously studied, then shows what credit you may be eligible for from UON’s degrees and courses.

New credit assessments are continually being added to the catalogue, so if you cannot find your particular Institution or Award qualification, contact the Enquiry Centre on (02) 4921 5000.


Applying for credit

Your first step in preparing to apply for credit is to search the credit transfer catalogue to see if your previous studies neatly align with courses offered at UON.

However, the catalogue is constantly being updated, so if your previous studies are not in it yet, it doesn’t mean you cannot receive credit – just that you’ll have to map what you’ve already done to your program plan.

You should also consider the age of your prior qualifications. There is a time limit on how long ago you can have completed studies and still use them for a credit application. These are outlined in our Program Management Manual - Coursework.

Make sure you have scanned colour copies (or certified black and white copies) of the documentation you will need to supply during your application.

You will need copies of:

  • your official transcripts (not screen shots, web results, or unofficial copies)
  • your official award certificate (the certificate you hang on the wall)

If you are applying for credit for courses/ subjects studied at another university, you need to provide official copies of the course/ subject syllabus. These need to include:

  • total hours for the whole course, assessment weighting scheduled (e.g 25% mid semester exam, 75% final exam etc)
  • weekly topic schedule
  • textbook materials used

You don’t need to provide any copies of transcripts, course outlines or awards for studies you completed at UON.

If you fill out the form correctly and apply early, credit outcomes may be available within two weeks of the complete application being submitted. However, it may take longer in peak periods, especially if your application needs to be forwarded to our Academic staff for assessment – so get your application in early!

Once you have prepared any required supporting documentation, you can submit your credit application.

After you have submitted your application with all supporting documents attached and mapping completed you can log in to the credit application tracking system to see where your application is up to.

Once we receive your application we:

  1. Check to see if there are any existing credit agreements (as you may have already seen in our Credit transfer catalogue).
  2. Check to see if there are any precedents i.e. if we have previously given someone in the same degree program this kind of credit.
  3. If neither of the above apply, we forward your application to the Academic staff who teach our courses/subjects to assess your application.
  4. Once we have details on the credit you can be awarded we send you an email with the outcome of your application.
  5. If you have been awarded credit we will record that on your official student record.

If you have been awarded credit you should go back to your program plan and see where your credit sits into your program of study, which will then show you what you need to enrol in.

You will be required to map each individual course or subject from your previous studies (source) into the UON course or subject (target) for which you are seeking credit. In a nutshell, this involves telling us which course(s) in the UON degree you think you have already covered.

  1. Visit our degrees page and click on the degree program you want to study, then scroll down the page until you can see the ‘Program Plans’ heading.
  2. When you have accessed the Program Plan most relevant to what you want to study, click into each of the courses/subjects on that plan that look like something you have already studied.
  3. After you have read the details, if they seem like what you have studied, make a note of each of the course codes for that UON subject and then a note of the subject you studied that you think is the same.

You will need this information when you fill out your application to map the courses/subjects you want credit for.

When you log in to check on the status of your application you may see some of the following notes:

  • WDOCS – More documents are required (we will send you an email if we need you to supply any additional documentation – so keep an eye on your inbox).
  • Being assessed – means we are working on your application.
  • Sent to Fac - Sent to Faculty (this means your application requires assessment from the Academic staff that teach the course/subject).
  • AOH – Approved on hold (which means we are waiting for you to successfully apply and enrol in the degree program so that we can apply the credit you have been awarded to your official record).
  • Model created in NUSTAR – credit has been recorded on your official UON transcript.

The credit awarded is governed by the Schedules to the Awards and Graduation Policy and the Academic Credit Policy.

If at any time you need advice on what you should be studying or what to enrol in, feel free to contact Student Central.