Grade Articulation

All grades earned while abroad will be posted to your UAB transcript and included in GPA calculations. Grades will be transferred back as letter grades, meaning they will impact your GPA. In all cases, you must participate fully in all course activities and meet all stated course requirements. Auditing of any course abroad is not permitted.

Credit Conversion

Foreign universities often use a different system of measuring course credit than UAB. As a result, foreign credits often do not equal the same number of credits as the same course at UAB. For example, most Western European countries use the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), while UAB uses the U.S. semester credit hour (SCH) system. To convert ECTS credits into UAB credits, multiply the ECTS credits time 0.5 (or divide by half). Below is a guide to help translate common types of foreign credit into UAB credits.

If the transcripts are received from a foreign university, UAB follows the guidelines set by World Education Services to convert the foreign grade to a US equivalent grade. World Education Services is an internationally-recognized credential evaluation agency.