Sustainability of higher education credit systems and transfer structures experiences from Australia, South Africa and the United States of America

Abstract

Because of high students and labour mobility across the globe; it becomes important that national and global academic credit transfer in post-schooling education is well defined, easy to understand and reciprocated. The European community harmonised its credit transfer through the Bologna Process of 1999 to address connectivity of 46 countries. Credit transfer across different post-schooling institutional types, i.e., vertical transfers, got better defined in the post 2008 reforms in Australia. The National Qualifications Framework in South Africa redefined national and international horizontal transfers, i.e., across universities, but vertical transfers remain a huge problem. In the United States of America, transfer is facilitated by State legislation and State education boards and vertical articulation is well defined within States. Without well-defined national and international credit transfer modalities, the sustainability of national qualifications systems gets journalised and graduates become highly immobile. This chapter analyses the different credit transfer modalities, experiences and challenges across post-school education in the three countries of Australia, South Africa and the United States of America. The chapter makes recommendations for planning national and international credit transfer mechanisms.