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Transfer students

Transfer students are those who have successfully completed part of a degree elsewhere and wish to transfer academic credit for that study to a Birkbeck programme.

Each transfer student application is considered on its merits, with the aim of creating a coherently structured degree programme that combines credit for studies elsewhere with studies here.

We emphasise the following criteria:

  1. Your earlier studies must have been sufficiently compatible to allow a smooth transition into ours (we can only consider credit for examinations equivalent to those required in our own programme).
  2. Your earlier studies must be sufficiently recent for the knowledge and skills you have gained to be fresh and active. If your earlier studies started more than four or five years ago, we may not be able to allow credit.

A transfer student should expect to complete a minimum of two years of part-time study with us, including the final year, before graduating with a University of London degree. The majority of our transfer students complete three years of part-time study, and a typical credit ‘allowance’ would be three or four modules, equivalent to 90 or 120 credits respectively.

The University of London expects the normal span of a transfer student’s degree programme (from its start at an earlier college or university to its conclusion here) to be not more than eight years of part-time study. Find out more by reading the regulations governing transfer students.

Please note the following restrictions:

  • Holders of University of London Extra-Mural diplomas or certificates, which are regarded as covering a part of a degree programme, may also be considered as transfer students, but will normally only be considered for credit at first-year level.
  • If you are transferring from a university outside the UK, we can only consider you for credit if you apply within 24 months of leaving your former university.
  • If you are transferring from another college of the University of London, we will bring forward your whole study record (good and bad together), unless you specifically request a fresh start with no credits.

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