Credit Exemption and Transfer Policy

Preamble

1. LiPACE recognizes prior learning achievements of its students at an appropriate level by the award of advanced standing credits. With reference to the document “Policy, Principles and Operational Guidelines for Credit Accumulation and Transfer under the Qualifications Framework” published by the Education Bureau in March 2016, LiPACE established a system and refined its policies for recognition and transfer of credits to recognize students' prior educational attainment through exempting students from the requirement of completing comparable course(s) in its programme.

Types of Credit Exemption and Transfer

2. There are two types of credit exemption and transfer:
   1. Specific Credit Exemption: Application and approval for specific credit exemption are made on a course-by-course basis. Assessment of credit exemption application is made by comparing the relevancy and similarity of the academic standard/level, content and learning outcomes of the course that a student has completed in his/her previous study with the course that the student nominates for credit exemption. Specifically, the prior qualification/study must be at the same or higher QF level and with at least 80% of comparable contents with the course(s) to be considered for exemption.
   2. Block Credit Exemption: Block credit exemption is granted based on consideration of the student's general learning experience. It will be granted to students who have completed a recognized qualification at the same or higher level in respect of a LiPACE programme of study. Sub-degree students may apply for block credit exemption for the language courses and IT course in their study programme.

General Principles

3. To be considered for course exemption, a student's prior qualifications must be:
   1. awarded by a recognized academic institution through a study with assessment; or
   2. awarded by a recognized professional/examination body through examinations; or
   3. awarded by a registered private institution for a programme recognized under the Hong Kong Qualifications Framework (QF) or accredited by an equivalent overseas accreditation body; or
   4. obtained via assessment under the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) scheme of the QF; or
   5. selected in-house training courses of companies/corporates whose learning outcomes and competencies developed in employees are recognised for credit exemption in bespoke certificate/diploma developed by LiPACE for staff of the particular companies/corporates.

4. A student can apply for both block credit exemption as well as specific credit exemption for the courses required for graduation in their respective study programme.

5. In any case, the maximum number of credits exempted/transferred should not exceed 50% of the total credit requirement for the academic award of the programme.

6. The minimum unit of exemption is one course. No exemption of partial course will be allowed.

7. To maintain students' exit standard, NO exemption should be allowed for capstone courses in a programme.

8. Prior qualifications that only meet the admission requirement are not entitled to exemption.

9. Exemption granted in prior study is not entitled to exemption in the current study.

10. Where necessary, applicants may be required to take an oral, written or practical assessment in order to prove that they have achieved the required course standard before approval of their applications.

Outcomes

11. For each course exemption granted, the student's course grade will be marked as “Exempted” on the transcript. Students are not required to take another course(s) to make up the total number of credits required for graduation.

12. An exempted course will be excluded from the calculation of the Grade Point Average (GPA) for full-time programmes or the Weighted Average Marks (WAM) for part-time programmes.

13. For full-time programmes and their mirror part-time programmes, no refund will be made for the exempted courses. For some of the part-time programmes, refund of relevant tuition fees paid may be made if course exemptions are granted.

14. LiPACE reserves the right not to grant credit exemption for courses which are not deemed as equivalent to the LiPACE courses applied to be exempted, and for courses which students previously completed with a low grade.