Returning Study Abroad Students Face Hurdles in Transfer Credits

• Reporter: Ruben Biaou
• Edited by: Nadeen Ghoniem
• Photograph Credits: Sara Tariq

Imagine returning from a fulfilling semester abroad, only to find hard-earned credits not transferred. This is the reality for many AUC students who go to universities abroad, only to have their academic plans derailed with the troubles of credit transfer. 

The delayed transfer of study abroad credits has for many years been a concern for students who often face disruptions during their course registration. The process of credit transferring is lengthy, with the first part dependent on the university abroad as they send the students transcripts to AUC. 

Manar Zaki, the University Registrar, explained that one of the main causes for the delay lies in the time it takes to obtain official transcripts from the universities abroad, as international institutions operate on different academic schedules and administrative processes. This can take up to a few months to resolve depending on the partner university abroad.

Once the transcript is received, it is sent to the respective departments for evaluation. 

“The course professor or the faculty who evaluates the course, the department chair and the associate dean make sure of an overview of the courses. Maybe the associate dean would see that one course is more related to another department rather than their department,” Zaki clarified.

Based on the department evaluation, the registrar’s office processes the credits, but due to their fluctuating workload, the processing period may be extended.

Mariam Salem, an AUC student double majoring in Political Science and English literature, recently returned from her Fall 2024 semester at Sciences Po in Paris. She is among the students struggling with credit transfers, waiting until March for their transfers to come through. 

She explained that during the Spring 2025 semester’s registration session, she had to register a day later than originally planned. 

“I had 68 credits, which made it on banner show up as me being a sophomore, [even though] once the credits would have transferred, I would be considered a junior, which also affected my ability to add certain courses,” Salem added. 

The host university’s process has a larger influence on how fast the credits will be transferred, such as their deadline for submitting final grades, and whether they function on the 4.0 GPA scale. Lining up those factors would speed up the transfer, and thus avoid the repercussions of conversions to accommodate AUC’s system. 

Sara Tariq, a political science graduating senior who spent a semester in Sciences Po, explained how the change in standards from one institution to another makes the equation even more complicated.

“The minimum passing grade required by AUC is considered difficult to achieve in France, which puts me under immense pressure to secure a grade that wouldn’t result in losing my credits, ” Tariq said.

Universities like Sciences Po function on a different credit system than AUC, as they take longer to process the grades for the previous term, which overlaps with AUC. 

“I received my final grades from Sciences Po on February 17,” Salem says.

Others like Nour Heikal, a psychology student who studied at Trinity College in Dublin during Spring 2024, shared a similar experience.

As registration for the new semester at AUC began, Heikal was still not considered a senior despite having the required credit hours.

“My credits were supposed to amount to a senior. So during registration, I was supposed to register a day earlier, but I was forced to register with fewer credits,” said Heikal.

This delay of having the credits transferred from Trinity College ultimately adversely affected her academic plan. 

“I had to apply for the waitlist for many courses because I wasn’t a senior, so I wasn’t prioritized. They [Trinity College] replied to me a week before university started, and I had to change my entire schedule,” said Heikal. 

Heikal was shocked when her credits were transferred over a semester after she had left Trinity College, and were only reflected at the start of the spring 2025 semester. She admits that despite the prolonged process, she could have communicated with both universities more to accelerate the process. 

“I thought it would take some time, but not more than a month or a few weeks maybe,” Heikal said.

In search of a more efficient and alternative solution, the AUC Student Union (SU) posted on their Instagram account the launch of a transfer pre-approval form, which aims to make the transitional process smoother when they return.   

Abdulrahman Shoaib, the SU’s general manager of Academic Advocacy, highlighted that this collaborative solution between the SU and the Registrar’s Office is more accessible and easier for students to organize their credits and know course equivalencies beforehand. 

“The system is now automated to help the Registrar monitor the status of the course, whether approved or not, or still under review,” added Shoaib. 

This new system aims to accelerate the already lengthy process, to ease the stress on both the faculty members and students. 

“We’re now moving to an online form, so that it tracks the workflow,” says Zaki. 

“It should take a maximum of 10 working days, this is the plan.”