Transfer credit is earned on hybrid Duke-In programs, Duke-Approved programs and petitioned programs. As long as you are enrolled at Duke on one of these types of programs, you must transfer credit back to Duke University. To qualify for transfer credit, courses must be approved by a Duke academic department and you must earn the equivalent of a U.S. C- or better.
Duke University’s Trinity College of Arts and Sciences has differing policies for transfer credit brought in from study away versus other institutional transfer credit. For a detailed explanation, see Transfer Credit on the Trinity College website.
If you are a transfer student to Duke University, consult your academic dean to determine whether you will be able to graduate on time by earning additional transfer credits from abroad.
How to Get a Course Approved for Transfer Credit
For all transfer credit, it is the student’s responsibility to verify that courses are approved for transfer credit, by following these steps outlined on the GEO Website. This should take place as soon as possible during the semester prior to studying away.
In some instances, you will not be able to make course selections before leaving Duke to study away, or your courses may change after you arrive at your program. In this case, submit course approval requests through the GEO Approved Course Database as quickly as possible before your local drop/add period ends. You may apply retroactively for approval for transfer credit after the semester is over, but you risk the course not being approved. If you postpone course approvals until after your return, there is no guarantee of credit.
Upon your return from your study away program, promptly verify that an official transcript or e-script is sent to GEO, containing all courses with final grades. Also confirm that all courses are transferred correctly.
All courses listed on your study away transcript will need approval before credits can be transferred. Only courses that have been approved will be transferred to your Duke transcript.
Satisfying Curricular Requirements
As long as students have earned the equivalent of a C- or higher, all courses approved by academic departments at Duke will appear on the Duke transcript and may be used to satisfy Area of Knowledge requirements. Per Trinity College policy, a course may not be used to satisfy more than one Area of Knowledge, even if the course carries more than one Area of Knowledge code. At your department’s discretion, transfer courses taken away may be used to satisfy major, minor, and/or certificate requirements.
Students are not able to fulfill Modes of Inquiry with study away transfer courses. The only exception to this is that students may apply for the FL Mode of Inquiry (1) for foreign language courses taken in study abroad immersion settings, and (2) for less commonly taught language courses not offered at Duke, as long as the student has a compelling reason and received permission from their academic dean to use this language to satisfy the foreign language requirement. Read more about curricular code transfer policies on the Trinity website.
Grade Transfer
For students earning transfer credits, courses will appear on the Duke transcript as study away transfer credits, with a grade designation of TR. These TR grades do not affect the student’s Duke GPA. If a course is approved as a 100 (lower level) or 300 (upper level), the course will appear on the Duke transcript as a specific department elective. If a course is approved as a Duke equivalent, the Duke course title will appear on the Duke transcript.
Courses will not appear on DukeHub until after your semester away, once GEO receives a transcript from the program/university and all courses have been approved for transfer credit. Until then, “REG 100 Study Away” will appear as a placeholder.
Minimum Grade Requirements
Students must earn the U.S. equivalent of a C– or higher for the course to transfer.
If a student fails a class, earning the equivalent of below a C-, the course will be recorded on their Duke transcript with the grade notation of TNC (transfer no credit), and no credit will be awarded. Like any transfer credit course, the failed course will not compute in the Duke GPA but will count as part of the student’s attempted full semester course load.
Duke students
Any course with “TR*” will not count in a student’s graduation total, regardless of the individual course value listed in DukeHub. For more info, see the Course Load section.
Non-Duke students
If students earn transfer credit on hybrid Duke-In programs, they will be provided supplemental documentation of graded credit with earned grades.
