Articulation Agreements

• What are Articulation Agreements
• Roles in Creating Articulation Agreements
  • Role of Faculty
  • Role of Office of Curriculum, Accreditation, and Assessment
  • Role of University
  • Role of Community College

WHAT ARE ARTICULATION AGREEMENTS

These are agreements between two or more schools in which they mutually agree to accept some courses as if the course had been done on their own premises. In other words, if a school has an articulation agreement with Gateway Community and Technical College, the agreement would specify which courses would transfer to NKU and give one of our catalog numbers for the equivalent course. A student having successfully completed that course at his or her home institution would receive credit for the equivalent course here. Articulation agreements worked out between NKU and a given community college establish guidelines for students with an associate degree to transfer to NKU. The articulation agreement encourages a greater number of transfer students to select NKU as the senior institution. It has long been a goal of the administration to increase the number of transfer students.

ROLES IN CREATING ARTICULATION AGREEMENTS

As a professional involved with the transfer process it is important to recognize the differing roles of various individuals and institutions in the transfer process. Click on the links below to learn about each of these roles:

• The Role of Faculty
• The Role of the Office of Curriculum, Accreditation, and Assessment
• The Role of the University
• The Role of the Community College

The Role of Faculty

The actual process of developing and reviewing curriculum and coursework to determine course comparability between the institutions rests with the faculty at the respective institutions. Faculty in each discipline are responsible for reviewing course content, identifying comparable courses, and authorizing acceptance of specific courses for transferring students. Once this review, identification, and formal written acceptance process has occurred, a course or sequence of courses is said to have been articulated. Implicit in the articulation process is involvement, communication, and cooperation between the respective faculty who mutually develop curriculum and establish requirements and standards for transferable courses.

It is important to note that articulated courses are not to be construed as equivalent but rather as comparable to, or acceptable in lieu of, each other. The content of the courses on the respective campuses is such that successful completion of the course on one campus assures the necessary background, instruction, and preparation to enable the student to progress to the next level of instruction at another campus.

The Role of the Office of Curriculum, Accreditation, and Assessment

The Office of Curriculum, Accreditation, and Assessment is responsible for the following:

• Facilitation of the articulation agreement process between institutions.
• Coordination of the process of faculty review and development of articulation agreements between institutions,
• Maintaining an up-to-date list of approved articulation agreements.
• Working with departments to update articulation agreements prior to expiration.
• Coordination of statewide agreements between KCTCS and NKU.
• Obtaining signatures upon completion and approval of articulation agreements.

The Role of the University

The university is responsible for developing and maintaining the articulation agreements with individual community colleges and universities.

The Role of the Community College

Transfer education is a stated priority within the mission of the community colleges and the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The success of the community college transfer mission is related to the quality and quantity of formal transfer that exists between the community college and the universities. KCTCS should work with NKU to develop agreements which assure that progress from one segment of postsecondary educating to another is both smooth and efficient.