Transfer Requirements

• Students transferring to UK are required to submit official transcripts from all previously attended institutions as part of the admissions process. They should be sent to the following address: 
  • Office of Undergraduate Admission
    100 W.D. Funkhouser Building 
    Lexington, KY 40506-0054 
• Credits earned at a fully accredited institution may be transferred to UK and applied toward a degree. A fully accredited institution is one in good standing and a member of one of the six regional academic accrediting associations. 
• Transfer credit below the 100 level is considered remedial work and will not be accepted toward a UK degree. 
• UK does not accept transfer grades toward the UK grade point average. A UK grade point average is established after the first term of classes. However, all transfer grades in all courses are included and counted in the admissions process. 
• A minimum grade of D- is required for a course to be accepted by UK. Colleges and departments may require a higher grade in order for the course to apply toward degree requirements. Refer to the UK major sheets to review the specific requirements for each major. 
• The transferability of course credit earned at two-year institutions is limited to a total of 67 semester hours, regardless of the total number of hours earned. 
• All work from any four-year regionally accredited institution is posted to the UK transcript except for remedial work. 
• Regardless of the number of hours accepted for transfer, all candidates for an undergraduate degree must complete 30 of their last 36 hours toward their degree at UK. 
• Students who have completed a Bachelor's degree, an Associate of Arts or an Associate of Science degree from a regionally accredited institution automatically fulfill the UK Core general education requirements. 

The General Education Transfer Policy facilitates the transfer of credits earned in general education requirements for students moving from one Kentucky public college or university to another Kentucky public college or university. Under this agreement, a student may satisfy the general education discipline requirements at their current college and have that requirement completion accepted at the university or college to which they may transfer.

Students that are "Fully Certified" are considered to have completed UK's baccalaureate general education requirements known as the UK Core. 

Students may also transfer to UK and be Category Certified in up to five areas. Students who are Category Certified in each of the five areas will be considered "Fully Certified" at UK. Those five categories are:

1. Arts and Humanities (AH)
2. Written Communication (WC) and Oral Communication (OC)
3. Natural Sciences (NS), plus Science Lab (SL)
4. Quantitative Reasoning (QR)
5. Social an Behavioral Sciences (SB)

The sending institution will indicate, either on the transcript or as an attachment to the transcript, whether the student is Fully Certified, Core Certified or Category Certified in general education, or if they have completed any of the coded general education courses (i.e., AH, NS, OC, QR, SB, SL and WC) at their institution.

Fully Certified - All general education requirements are completed (AA and AS degrees guarantee full certification.)

Core Certified - The 30 hours of core general education is completed, and remaining general education requirements of the receiving institution are still required.

Category Certified - One or more of the above categories is complete (e.g., AH Category certification means no additional courses are required in the AH category.)

Course Certified - The category is not complete, but a course will partially fulfill a given category. 

The Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) and the University of Kentucky have signed a reverse transfer agreement to help more students earn associate degrees. Former KCTCS students who transfer to UK before earning an associate degree can have UK credits applied toward the KCTCS degree, if the credits for each institution align.

Students will be eligible for reverse transfer when they have met the following criteria:

• Have earned at least 25 percent of credit hours required for their degree at a KCTCS college.
• Have earned at least three semester credit hours from UK.
• Adhere to all policies and guidelines related to student admissions and transfer at both UK and KCTCS.

For more information on the reverse transfer process, email uktransfer@uky.edu.

• The American Council on Education guidelines regarding military credit are followed, when possible.
• Only military credit that directly applies to degree completion is added to the academic record.
• Community College of the Air Force (CCAF) coursework is processed as traditional coursework from a regionally accredited institution.
• Military coursework does not count toward the requisite 24 credit hours for transfer admission, as outlined above. If students have fewer than 24 credit hours, they will be required to submit the documents outlined above for applicants with fewer than 24 credit hours.