STUDY ABROAD ACADEMIC POLICY & PROCEDURES ( Credit Status: Transfer, Graded, Ungraded Non-Credit • Grading • Senior Status Permission • Limits • National Student Exchange)

CREDIT STATUS-
TRANSFER: Transfer credit status allows students to take courses at other institutions and to transfer credit back to NMSU. Transfer credit programs have been developed by the Office in cooperation with the colleges using a strategy that promotes (1) accessibility, (2) affordability, and (3) acceptability. Accessibility: Students may study in approved universities and other educational institutions in all regions of the world. Many subjects are taught in English for students who have not mastered a foreign language. Or students may study a language intensively or in a language which they have mastered. Programs are open to undergraduate and graduate students. Affordability: Students either pay NMSU tuition on exchange or enroll in low- to moderate-cost direct enrollment programs. Students may also pay NMSU room and board rates on some exchanges. Full-time degree seeking students may use scholarships, grants, and loans administered by NMSU on all approved programs. Students may compete for international fellowships coordinated or supported by NMSU. Acceptability: Students receive transfer credit through programs that have been selected to match well with the curriculum of the various colleges at NMSU. Credit transfer is pre-approved by a student’s college and recorded on the student’s transcript upon receipt of an official transcript or report from a host institution or university. Programs are selected to challenge students to learn to speak a foreign language, adjust to living in a new culture, experience a different academic system, gain new perspectives of their abilities and character, and improve their career opportunities.
–GRADED COURSE: Graded course credit status is defined as enrolling in NMSU regular or distance education courses which require part or all of the course to be completed outside the U.S. in order to receive a grade for the course. These typically include course required travel (field trips, research projects, other organized and supervised educational activities), as well as many of the intensive language programs.
– UNGRADED NON-CREDIT: Ungraded Non-credit Travel Status is defined as NMSU organized or supervised travel outside the U.S. that occurs while a student is enrolled at, affiliated with, or funded by NMSU for which the student is not earning credit. These are almost exclusively faculty organized or supervised trips that are optional and not required to earn credit for a course or to complete thesis or dissertation research. This type of travel abroad may include both degree and non-degree seeking students, or guests of the university accompanying the group.

GRADING: Transfer credit. Students receive transfer credit for an equivalent NMSU course with a mark of CR for each course passed at the study abroad program. Under special circumstances letter grades (A-D or S/U) may be requested and recorded. CR simply signifies that the student has been granted NMSU credit for courses completed satisfactorily elsewhere. CR is not used in determing the student's grade-point average. This is not the same as pass/fail--students must obtain a grade for each course taken abroad and must pass that course according to the foreign institution's standards of grading. Graded credit status students will be graded A-F, or S/U may be chosen as an option. The grade received will affect the student's grade point average. Students engaging in optional travel activity will not earn credit or receive a grade.

SENIOR STATUS PERMISSION TO STUDY ABROAD:  Students may study abroad as seniors, but they will have to receive permission from their college to do any of their last 30 credits abroad in transfer credit status. Seniors also have to know that studying in their last semester for transfer credit may delay their date of graduation due to delays in transferring credit. Seniors studying in programs in which they will receive NMSU graded credit are not affected.

LIMITS: There is no formal limit to the number of times students may study abroad as long as students receive permission from their college to transfer credit toward their degree or to enroll in a course for graded NMSU credit.

NATIONAL STUDENT EXCHANGE: Undergraduate students may study both abroad and on the National Student Exchange Programs in the U.S. The biggest problem is being able to fill out applications for either program when away from the NMSU campus. Students need to carefully plan how they will do this. Students currently out on NSE will have to be interviewed by the Assistant Dean for Study Abroad before being approved for an NMSU international exchange.