Transfer credit, credit transfer, or advanced standing are the terms used by colleges and universities for the procedure of granting credit to a student for educational experiences or courses undertaken at another institution.
"Advanced standing" is also used to describe the status of a student granted credit, as distinct from normal course entrants who commence the stream of study at the beginning.
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When a student transfers, they usually provide their academic transcript(s) which lists the course taken, grade and other attributes from each institution they attended when applying for enrollment. Each transcript and the listed courses are tentatively evaluated to see if any of the courses taken satisfy the requirements of the receiving institution.
Transfer credit is not official until an academic officer of the college or university provides a written verification the award has been accepted and applied on the academic transcript meeting the degree requirement. Transfer credit is not guaranteed when a student transfers from one institution to another. Often, some prior course credit completed at another institution is not counted toward the degree requirement, extending the student's time to graduation.
Historically credit transfer has mainly been administered on an adhoc basis by higher education institutions but it has now become an important area of national and transnational education policy, particularly in relation to mobility between countries and educational sectors. Consequently, agreements between groups of universities have been put in place, such as Australian Group of Eight Universities, and broader schemes have been developed to simplify transfer.