ACCREDITATION OF PRIOR LEARNING (APL)

UNIVERSITY OF DUNDEE
PLANNING AND RESOURCES COMMITTEE
LEARNING AND TEACHING SUB-COMMITTEE
ACCREDITATION OF PRIOR LEARNING (APL)

DEFINITION

1 Accreditation of prior learning is the process by which assessed courses, part-qualifications and full qualifications obtained elsewhere are formally recognised by the University and acknowledged as being acceptable to it as a part of its own educational provision by counting that prior learning as an element of one of its own awards.

(Note: the accreditation of prior learning obtained in a Higher Education Institution may be an easier process since most HEI's in Scotland are signatories to the SCOTCAT scheme in which many courses are credit-rated at the various levels of the four-year Scottish degree structure).

2 For an "older" Scottish University like Dundee this is a more complex way of describing the "pro tanto" system whereby Colleges and sometimes Schools make a judgement on an entrant student's prior learning and grant exemption from one or more elements of its own degree programme in the light of that judgement.

3 This process has long been carried on in the University in a variety of ways - some formal and some informal - but given the increased scrutiny of such activities by external agencies it is expedient that the University regularise this process and provide basic criteria which Schools should formally adopt when involved in the process of accreditation.

CRITERIA

4 The basic criteria to be satisfied for the accreditation of prior learning are -

(1) it should be relevant to the award toward which it will count;

(2) it should be at an appropriate level (ie equivalent to 1st year or 2nd year etc of a Dundee Degree);

(3) that its learning outcomes (ie what the student has achieved) are broadly equivalent to those elements of the Dundee award for which credit is claimed;

(4) that its curricular content is broadly equivalent to those elements of the Dundee award for which credit is claimed;

(5) that it is recent - ie acquired normally within the last five years, a figure which may be adjusted according to the nature of the Dundee award for which credit is claimed (eg an eight-year old qualification from the Institute of Chartered Secretaries & Administrators may be regarded as acceptable for general exemption from first year of an MA in Arts & Social Sciences while a four-year old HND in Biological Science may be out-dated in terms of its content);

(6) that it is the applicant's responsibility to provide the detailed information required from a previous institution or organisation for the purposes of accreditation by the University.

OPERATIONAL ISSUES

5 (1) General credit is the number of credit points attached to prior learning without consideration of its relation to any particular programme of study; specific credit is that proportion of general credit which is directly relevant to a particular programme of study.

(2) Most accreditation is dealt with on a College basis and is concerned with the admission of individual candidates to various levels of degree courses and provided that those responsible for admission operate broadly within the criteria outlined above there is no need for an additional tier of University approval.

(3) In cases where a School or College wishes to accredit a qualification on a general basis rather than the achievement of an individual candidate (eg a certificate in social services from a college of further education) approval should be sought through the relevant College Academic Standards Committee via documentation appropriate to the criteria in paragraph 4 above.

Dr I K Francis
Academic Secretary

20 January 1997