Transfer credits

Eligibility for transfer credits depends on:

• The courses and curriculum you’ve completed or attempted to complete
• Your final grades in those courses
• The program to which you have been admitted at the University of Ottawa and the related courses and sequence, including required courses and electives

Please note:

• Your previous institution must be recognized or accredited by the country’s ministry of education. If it’s not on our list of recognized institutions, you must provide proof of accreditation.
• We don’t conduct pre-admission evaluations. Transfer credits are assessed only after you apply, accept your offer of admission and pay the required deposit, if applicable.
• You must complete at least 50% of your courses at uOttawa. This limits how many transfer credits can be applied to your program of admission.
• We don’t grant transfer credits for graduate-level courses. Courses taken at the master’s or doctoral level can’t be applied to undergraduate programs.
• We don’t evaluate professional courses for undergraduate programs. Law, education or medicine courses can’t be applied to uOttawa undergraduate programs.

We keep a large database of courses from other institutions and their uOttawa equivalents, to determine transfer credits. While we can often rely on this database, we still need to assess many courses missing from it. Here’s what you can expect during the assessment process:

1. The process starts when you accept your offer and, if applicable, pay the admission deposit.
2. Within three weeks of accepting your offer or of the date we receive your deposit, you’ll either receive a revised offer of admission showing your transfer credits or an email requesting your course outlines.
3. If course outlines are requested, you’ll have two weeks to submit them. The earlier we receive them, the earlier we can begin the assessment process.

4. If you don’t or can’t provide the documents, we’ll grant you some general optional credits that you can use to meet your elective course requirements (e.g. OPT1XXX), rather than course-specific transfer credits.

   1. See the tab on “Types of transfer credits” for more information.
5. If we receive the correct documents on time, we’ll send your course outlines to our subject matter experts. The assessment can take up to three weeks, depending on the volume of requests.

6. Once the assessment is complete, you’ll receive a revised offer of admission showing all approved transfer credits.

   1. You can view your transfer credits in your revised offer of admission and in uoZone under “My Academic Requirements.”

We grant transfer credits based on what we believe would serve you best in your program. Please note that you may be able to apply these transfer credits to different courses if you choose a second discipline or request a change of program. If you’d like to do this, contact your faculty.

We don’t normally grant transfer credits for high school courses, except for recognized advanced programs.

The number of transfer credits depends on the number of CEGEP courses you’ve completed.

• If you’ve completed 12 CEGEP courses, you can receive up to 15 units (credits).
• If you’ve completed 13 to 16 CEGEP courses, you can receive between 18 and 27 units.
• If you’ve completed more than 17 CEGEP courses, you can receive up to 30 units, the equivalent of one year of university.

Transfer credits (units) available

Tip: See our information on transfer credits for CEGEP students in the Faculty of Science.

Transfer credits (units) available (degree programs)

College agreements

The University of Ottawa has agreements with many Canadian colleges that allow you to transfer into specific programs with previously earned credits.

All Canadian Colleges

Algonquin College

Please note that under these agreements, you must take specific courses to be granted the credits. For more information, contact InfoAdmission.

You must declare all studies you’ve attempted or completed on your OUAC application to qualify for transfer credits. Failure to do so is considered academic fraud.

• If you’re completing a second diploma at the University of Ottawa, please consult the Academic Regulation B-7 – Conditions for Obtaining a Degree, Certificate or Diploma.
• If you’re currently enrolled at the University of Ottawa and are seeking information on switching faculties, learn more about how to make changes to your undergraduate program.
• If you’re currently enrolled at the University of Ottawa and wish to take a course at another institution, contact your faculty to learn about obtaining a letter of permission.