BCCAT information

Good morning,

This morning I read an excellent study that I would like to share briefly.  The British Columbia Council on Admissions and Transfers (or BCCAT as we like to call it) is the agency in BC which oversees all of the transfer credits between colleges and universities.  If you were to go to the BCCAT.ca website you would be able to search for any courses that you take at Yukon College (and there are dozens) and see which universities they transfer to for credit.  Once a course has been recognized for credit by one of the big universities in BC such as UBC, SFU or UVIC, it is then usually able to transfer to all of the other colleges and universities in the province as well.  Yukon College has been a member of the BCCAT system for many years and continues to add new courses to that transfer system every few months.

BC and Alberta also have an agreement that allows most courses that are in the BCCAT system to transfer into the Alberta university system through the Alberta Council on Admissions and Transfers (ACAT).  This essentially means that Yukon College students can transfer many of their courses to most colleges and universities in both BC and Alberta.  The most important things to do is make sure you check to see if the course is transferable BEFORE you register if you are intending to go south for further education.  Both the bccat.ca and http://www.acat.gov.ab.ca websites are easy to use.

Anyway, the study I read today is on the bccat.ca website and summarizes research that was done to determine if transfer students moving from colleges to universities are able to transfer the same number of credits as students transferring directly from high school.  The study found, happily, that ‘the transfer route does not seem to disadvantage transfer students , and in fact transfer students are able to graduate with approximately the same number of credits as secondary school students, accounting for both total credits awarded at sending institutions as well as credits completed at receiving institutions…..Furthermore, transfer students perform as well academically as secondary school graduates with very small variations in GPA by university and program.  Students who choose the transfer route seem to be well prepared to meet the academic challenges facing them at university."  (2010 bccat.ca)

It is the success of those students who have transferred from Yukon College to southern universities that encourages us to continue building transferability into many of our new programs.  It means that our students can choose to go directly to southern universities or colleges, or if they complete a Yukon College credential, go on to further education at some point in the future.

Have a great week!