Credits for Courses Taken Abroad
Courses taken at other Canadian or international universities can count towards your Queen’s History degree plan. Students are encouraged to carefully review the information below and start planning early in order to allow sufficient time for your courses to be evaluated before you enroll.
Upper-Year Students who would like to earn seminar credit (HIST 333-499) while studying at another institution, should contact the department before going abroad. Seminars are not offered at all foreign institutions; therefore, students may need to plan ahead to only take lectures or elective courses while on exchange. If you are a History Major, you should try to get one seminar course (3.0 units) if you are away for one term, or two courses (6.0 units) if you are away for a full year. To do this, you should consult with the department to ensure the institution you are selecting for your exchange has seminar courses available and review the "Seminar Course Transfers" section below.
Course Equivalents
If a course at another university covers roughly the same content as a course offered at Queen’s, the equivalent Queen’s course number will appear on your transcript. For example, a course in Canadian history which resembles the basic outline of a Queen’s course in Canadian history, will receive the actual Queen’s course number (for example, HIST 260). If this is granted, you cannot take the same course again at Queen’s for credit. That is, if your exchange or letter of permission course was evaluated as HIST 260, you are unable to enrol in HIST 260 at Queen’s during the remainder of your degree plan.
If the course is not equivalent to a specific Queen’s course, it will be assessed according to its level and content. You will receive an “Unspecified” history credit which will appear as UNS on your transcript as opposed to a regular Queen’s course code. These unspecified units will count towards your History degree plan.
HIST 1UNS = first-year course, HIST 2LEC =200 level lecture, HIST 3SEM = upper-level seminar.
Seminar Course Transfers
Most courses taken at other universities translate as lecture courses (HIST 2LEC). Only courses that follow the same requirements as a Queen’s seminar course can be counted as 3SEM. Courses called “seminars” at European universities, for example, almost never translate as SEM credits at Queen’s, but rather should be transferable as unspecified credits (either 3UNS or 4UNS) and could count as your History degree plan as electives, though their evaluation will be done on a case by case basis. Note that 3LEC and 4LEC do not exist in History at Queen's, so they do not exist as transfer credits, either.
All History students are required to complete at least 50% of their total required upper-year seminar course requirements (HIST 333-499) on campus at Queen's University. Major students who take upper-year seminars abroad can have no more than 9 units of seminar credits apply to their Core C degree requirement, while Joint Honours students can have no more than 6 units. Additional seminar credits completed at other institutions will usually count toward the Option requirements of the Major/Joint Honours History degree plan or as electives (see Academic Regulation 16.1.3 and 16.2.3 for overall limits on transfer credits).
What is a seminar?
To receive seminar credit, a course should have fewer than 30 students. The course should based on class discussion, and there should an average of 150 pages per week in mandatory readings, an essay assignment component, and course evaluation is not based solely on a final exam. Lecture/tutorial classes, such as those common in British universities, could count as seminars if tutorial sessions are weekly, depending on other course components, but usually do not count as seminars if tutorials are only fortnightly or monthly.
If a student wants seminar credit for a course taken at another university, it is his/her/their responsibility to prove that the course is in fact a seminar. Most Canadian university course calendars clearly distinguish between seminar and lecture courses, but not always. If the course calendar is unclear, you should collect and submit alternative evidence to make a case that the course is indeed a seminar: for example, designation of the course as a seminar in the course syllabus, a note from the professor attesting to the size of the class and/or the importance of participation, or some other evidence (written work, tutorial essays, etc.).
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