What is Articulation?

Articulation is the "action or manner of jointing or interrelating,"1 and it is what allows multiple sectors or branches of education, each with its own distinctive characteristics, to function as a system. Through the process of articulation, institutions assess learning acquired elsewhere, in order that credit towards their own credentials may be provided.

Articulation is a process involving a series of transactions that:

• relies on faculty decisions;
• acknowledges the different character and missions of institutions and the integrity of programs;
• is built on trust and on many years of interaction in articulation committees; and
• results in the awarding of transfer credit.

The ultimate beneficiaries of the articulation process are the students, who can be assured that their learning will be appropriately recognized. Thus, all articulation supports the fundamental principle of equity on which the articulation environment is built: that students should not have to repeat content of which they have already demonstrated mastery, nor be denied credit because of technicalities. Nor should they be credited with learning they have not acquired, especially if that learning is fundamental to their advancement to further study, or a required element of their program.

Forms of Articulation

Bilateral course-to-course articulation starts when one institution (the sending institution) sends a course to another (the receiving institution) with a request that the course be awarded transfer credit. If the course is judged by a faculty member at the receiving institution as equivalent to one of the institution's own courses, that (receiving) institution has indicated that it will accept it in lieu of one of its own courses. Once this happens, the course has been formally articulated, and the student who presents this course on a transcript at the receiving institution will receive the transfer credit recorded in the BC Transfer Guide.

Within a bilateral course-to-course articulation process, each course at each sending institution is articulated individually with each receiving institution. Therefore, each sending institution course has multiple bilateral articulation agreements. This form of articulation, being the most common and also the most complex, is the subject of the two largest sections in this handbook: At the Sending Institution and At the Receiving Institution.

A different approach to articulation, multilateral articulation, is practised by several disciplines within the BC Transfer System, most notably by Adult Basic Education (ABE) programs, English as a Second Language (ESL) programs and Business Management diploma programs. These programs articulate their courses collaboratively, comparing each course to a set of outcomes or content statements that have been jointly developed as representing an acceptable standard for the course. This approach is described in the section, Multilateral Articulation.

Yet a third form of articulation occurs where institutions compare whole programs and assess how students can, for example, move from a diploma to a degree. This is commonly known as Block Transfer and is described in detail in that section of the handbook.

Other innovative approaches to articulation are often undertaken by articulation committees and some of these forms of articulation are described in the section titled Transfer Innovations.

Articulation in BC: A Success Story

The British Columbia post-secondary system has a well-integrated model of differentiated institutions committed to recognizing and awarding credit for equivalent learning through the process of articulating courses and programs for credit. Every year considerable resources are spent on articulation (up to $7 million by one estimate),2 and it is money well spent. About 8000 individual courses, each with seven agreements on average, were listed in the BC Transfer Guide in the spring of 2005. Alongside these course-to-course agreements are hundreds of block transfer arrangements allowing students to earn credit for completed diploma programs, and numerous other course and program agreements that facilitate transfer.

Do students get the transfer credit they deserve? BCCAT's research indicates that the answer to this question is YES. In a series of studies undertaken by three universities,3 the key finding is that BC college transfer students receive credit for the vast majority of college credits earned. Credits that do not transfer are primarily from programs not designed for transfer or from pre-university programs such as ABE or ESL.

Other BCCAT studies have involved in-depth interviews with students contemplating future transfer and reflecting on past experiences, as well as analyses of former college and institute students' responses to transfer-related survey questions. While transfer students face some challenges and need to plan their programs carefully, the vast majority of transfer students rate their experiences highly, and are glad that they chose a transfer route to a degree.

The institutions, public and private, that participate in the BC Transfer System are listed in the BC Transfer Guide.

Articulation polices and practices in British Columbia facilitate credit transfer, ensure equitable treatment of students and promote an efficient and economical post-secondary system.

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