Background

Senate Bill 268 and Amended Substitute House Bill 111 from the 119th General Assembly of the State of Ohio directed the Ohio Board of Regents to develop and implement a statewide Articulation and Transfer Policy (Appendix A, Legislation). In November 1989, the Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents appointed a 21-member Commission on Articulation and Transfer to develop a policy framework for a statewide articulation and transfer process.

The Ohio Articulation and Transfer Policy was developed by the commission and subsequently approved in November of 1990 by the Ohio Board of Regents.

The Ohio Board of Regents administered and evaluated the policy for the next 15 years with the assistance of the Articulation and Transfer Advisory Council, a body representative of allparticipating higher education institutions. The Ohio Articulation and Transfer Policy was a major achievement in improving the mobility of transfer students amonguniversities and community and technical collegeswithin the state. While it provided a coherent set of principles and guidelines that improved the transfer process, it also facilitated enhanced inter-institutional cooperation. Oversight from a standing Articulation and Transfer Advisory Council, design of Ohio Transfer Module, and implementation of the course applicability system are a few of the many components which improved effectiveness of the initial policy.

However, three main sources suggest that further improvements are needed to better support student mobility, access, and degree completion:

Findings and recommendations from the statewide campus visitation and study conducted by the Policy Impact Committee of the Articulation and Transfer Advisory Council
Findings and recommendations from the Policy Review Committee of the Articulation and Transfer Advisory Council
Instructions and requirements conveyed to the Ohio Board of Regents from the 125th General Assembly of the State of Ohio in H.B. 95 and Ohio Revised Code Section 3333.16

An Ohio Board of Regents report to the General Assembly on April 25, 2005, confirmed that all aspects of H.B. 95 have been addressed and are in various phases of implementation. Encouragement from the Ohio General Assembly, coordination from the Ohio Board of Regents, recommendations from the Articulation and Transfer Advisory Council and inter-institutional cooperation among Ohio universities and community and technical colleges have all been essential ingredients in improving the transfer process.

The policy, attachments and appendices which follow are intended to codify an enhanced articulation and transfer system designed to improve the mobility of transfer students and credits among higher education institutions. As H.B. 95 stipulates, the original Ohio Articulation and Transfer Policy shall remain in effect except as amended by the Ohio Board of Regents in consultation with the Articulation and Transfer Advisory Council. The Ohio Articulation and Transfer Policy, in its current form, was approved by the Ohio Board of Regents on March 22, 2007.