1. Scope
This policy is in conjunction with the St George’s, University of London (thereafter referred to as St George’s) Admissions Policy and applies to transferring university admission for home, EU and international applicants to all taught programmes of study leading to an award from St George’s. See section 8 for information pertaining to transferring from St George’s to another institution
Students applying to transfer into St George's
2. General principles
St George’s welcomes applications from prospective students who wish to transfer from another Higher Education Institution and enter at a later stage of a course or gain exemption from specific modules. St George’s is committed to providing high quality education opportunities to students from a wide variety of backgrounds. In order to admit an applicant, Admissions staff must be satisfied that an applicant has every reasonable prospect of succeeding in their chosen programme of study. Applicants will be reviewed via a standard process, detailed below, whilst being considered on their individual merits.
3. Programmes of study
All award-bearing taught programmes advertised on the St George’s website are open to transfer requests.
4. Criteria for consideration
In order to be considered for a transfer, the following criteria must be met:
- enquiry and submission of request made in line with the timeline in section 5 (Transfer process).
- transferring will allow the applicant to complete at least half of the credits required for an award at St George’s. See section 6. Recognition of Prior Learning for more information.
- commonality between the previous curriculum and St George’s curriculum to ensure previously covered content is compatible with the St George’s programme.
- available cohort capacity on the relevant year of the course, across student number controls, course capacity, and clinical placement capacity.
Meeting all criteria for consideration does not guarantee the transfer request will be accepted. The final decision is made by the Admissions Tutor, see section 5 (Transfer process) for more information.
5. Transfer process
5.1 Applicant enquiry
The applicant should email admissions@sgul.ac.uk no later than 31 March in the year before the autumn (usually September) start. For example, for transfers into a St George’s programme in September 2023, enquiries should be made before 31 March 2023.
Late requests will not be considered given the length of the time needed to conduct the transfer process.
5.2 Admissions response
The Admissions team will respond to transfer requests, usually within 10 working days, providing a list of documents and a deadline for submission.
Whilst specific documentation may differ depending on the circumstances of the transfer request, the documents likely to be requested include:
- an account of reasons for transfer request, including evidence where necessary.
- a full academic CV, including any periods of study that did not result in a qualification, for example, due to withdrawal, failure, or exclusion.
- evidence of previous learning, such as transcripts and certificates (see section 6. Recognition of Prior Learning).
- an outline of each module taken, including grades and marks achieved.
- an academic reference from your current Course Director (or Deputy) in support of transfer request.
- details and references from clinical placements, where relevant.
- a copy of up-to-date attendance record.
- completion of the St George’s Internal Disclosures Form.
In some instances, the Admissions team will inform the applicant that transfer requests are not being considered for that academic year, regardless of if the programme typically accepts transfer requests. This will typically be due to there being no capacity within the existing cohort to accept more students.
5.3 Applicant submission
Once the recommended documentation has been collated, all documents must be submitted in one email to admissions@sgul.ac.uk, unless requested otherwise, by the deadline provided.
5.4 Admissions Tutor review
Upon receipt of the required documentation, the Admissions Tutor for the programme will be invited to review and make a decision on the request.
The Admissions Tutor will:
- consider the reasons for the request, and review all documents.
- review previous academic qualifications. In most cases, applicants will be expected to have met the published entry requirements for standard entry.
- compare both curricula to ensure previously covered content is compatible with the St George’s programme, and seek to guarantee that the learning is current.
- decide whether credit can be given to previously covered content, in entirety or, where relevant, identify which modules can be credited.
- determine if there is capacity within the cohort to accommodate more students.
- invite the applicant to attend an interview with the Admissions Tutor prior to a decision being made, if necessary.
5.5 Decision
The decision made by the Admissions Tutor is final, and will be made in line with our policies for applicants and new students. Decisions can take several months to be finalised, and all decisions will be communicated by email.
If the decision is to accept the request to transfer to St George’s, the Admissions team will contact the applicant to prepare their student record and discuss completion of any non-academic requirements, such as Fitness to Practise checks ahead of enrolment in the autumn. Applicants may be invited to apply through UCAS in order to create a student record at St George’s.
If the decision is to decline the request to transfer to St George’s, a reason for this decision will be provided to the applicant. If the reason is non-academic, for example, due to course capacity restrictions, additional requests in subsequent years of study may be considered.
6. Recognition of Prior Learning
Entry will be assessed on the basis of existing qualifications, Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). Students will usually have to accumulate at least half of the credits required for an award at St George’s although there are programme-specific exemptions whereby the maximum limit for credit transfer is two thirds of the credit required for the award. For example, requests from applicants in the third year of a three-year degree will not usually be accepted.
RPL applies only when the prior certificated learning meets one of the following criteria:
- it was awarded by another UK Higher Education Institution.
- it falls within another UK regulated credit framework (e.g. the Qualifications and Credit Framework).
- it is from an international institution and has been reviewed by ECCTIS to determine its credit value and equivalence to one of the UK national credit frameworks.
The arrangements for students to transfer to the University utilising RPL and the quality assurance arrangements underpinning admission by RPL are described in the University’s Quality Manual (section K), and General Regulations.
7. Clinical Transfer Route into Medicine
Students studying the St George’s Biomedical Science (BSc, or MSci) programme, who began their studies in autumn 2022 or earlier, have an opportunity to apply to transfer into the second year of the Medicine MBBS (Graduate Entry) course on completing their Biomedical Science degree. Further details can be found on our website.
Students applying to transfer from St George’s to another institution
8. Students leaving St George’s
Students who wish to transfer to another institution should enquire with their preferred institution to explore the possibility of using their studies at St George’s to gain entry to another degree programme. The decision to accept credit from St George’s is at the discretion of the relevant institution.
8.1 Documentation
Programme specifications are available from the University’s website and these can be used to support admission to another institution.
Students who remain enrolled at St George’s whilst exploring their transfer options should contact their Course Administrator to request a transcript of their degree to date.
Students who leave the University either upon completion of their intended award or part way through their programme are issued with a transcript which details the modules taken, their credit value and the marks for each element of assessment associated with the module, the award gained (including intermediate awards achieved).
Academic Registrar
June 2022