S-200                 _______________________________________________

                                                   SENATE BILL NO. 5345

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State of Washington                               51st Legislature                              1989 Regular Session

By Senator McCaslin

Read first time 1/20/89 and referred to Committee on   Higher Education.

AN ACT Relating to higher education transfer of credit; amending RCW 28B.80.280 and 28B.80.290; and adding a new section to chapter 28B.80 RCW.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.  A new section is added to chapter 28B.80 RCW to read as follows:

          The legislature finds that, under the present policy on transfer of credit among state institutions of higher education, students are often required to retake courses which had been successfully completed at another state institution of higher education.  The legislature intends to eliminate this costly and wasteful duplication of effort by students, state institutions of higher education, and the state.

        Sec. 2.  Section 1, chapter 304, Laws of 1983 as amended by section 27, chapter 370, Laws of 1985 and RCW 28B.80.280 are each amended to read as follows:

          The board shall, in cooperation with the state institutions of higher education and the state board for community college education, establish and maintain a state-wide transfer of credit policy and agreement.  The policy and agreement shall, where feasible, include course and program descriptions consistent with state-wide interinstitutional guidelines.  The institutions of higher education shall provide support and staff resources as necessary to assist in developing and maintaining this policy and agreement.  The state-wide transfer of credit policy and agreement shall be effective beginning with the 1985-86 academic year.  The board shall report on developments toward that objective at the 1987 regular session of the legislature.  The board, in cooperation with the state institutions of higher education and the state board for community college education, shall revise the state-wide transfer of credit policy and agreement to assure full transferability of credits and grades among state institutions of higher education.  The revised policy and agreement shall be submitted to the legislature for review by December 1, 1990, and shall be effective beginning with the 1990-91 academic year.

        Sec. 3.  Section 2, chapter 304, Laws of 1983 and RCW 28B.80.290 are each amended to read as follows:

          The state-wide transfer of credit policy and agreement shall be designed to facilitate the transfer of students and the evaluation of transcripts, to better serve persons seeking information about courses and programs, to aid in academic planning, and to improve the review and evaluation of academic programs in the state institutions of higher education.  The state-wide transfer of credit policy and agreement shall not require ((nor)) but may encourage the standardization of course content ((and shall not prescribe course content or the credit value assigned by any institution to the course)) to the extent necessary to assure full transferability of credits and grades among state institutions of higher education.  The agreement shall specify that all credits and grades received by a student for course work at a state institution of higher education shall be acceptable and fully transferable to any other state institution of higher education.