Before participating in a study abroad program, students must outline a plan of study for their semesters. It is recommended that students use any course catalogues or other information provided by their target universities in order to better understand what kind of curriculum the schools have and what courses could potentially satisfy their degree requirements here at PHBS. If a PHBS student has been successfully nominated to partake in exchange, they will have to go through a two-step process to ensure their credits can be successfully transferred back to PHBS.
Step one is the Course Pre-Approval Process. This takes place approximately 2-3 months before a semester begins. After having thoroughly researched course options at the target school, students will have the opportunity to select 9 courses for determinations. This way, students will end up with a variety of options when choosing courses to transfer back in case they need alternatives. When choosing courses, they must be master’s level courses and cannot interfere with a student’s individual degree requirements here at PHBS. These courses will be cross-checked when transcripts have been received to confirm that there are no overlaps with any courses taken at PHBS. The first part of this process is to complete a Course Pre-Approval Application Survey. Because the application is online and its link changes with each semester of applicants, students will be notified by email containing the web address of the application and application instructions. Basic personal and school information will be required on the first page. The following pages will have spaces to enter course information and upload course syllabi.
After all of the applications have been corrected and filed, they will all be compiled and submitted to a Credit Exchange Committee made up of PHBS faculty members. This committee will contain an even number of faculty from each field, and after deliberating, will determine the credits of each course. Courses will be determined as one of four possibilities:
1. No Transfer—the course does not meet the requirements to be transferred back to PHBS
2. Approved with PHBS Equivalent— the course will transfer back as an elective in the field that it is determined (Management, Finance, Economics), but the student cannot have taken the equivalent PHBS course before or after attending the study abroad program,
3. Approved with No Equivalent—the course can be transferred back as an elective in the field that it is determined (Management, Finance, Economics)
4. No Decision—the course was lacking sufficient information, so it could not be determined at this time
When all of the courses have been determined, they will be organized by school and emailed to all of the students planning to attend the same school. They will not only see the results of the courses they applied for, but other courses they may not have had space to consider. With this information, students should be confidently equipped to register for courses.
The second step is the Post-Approval Application Process. This takes place approximately 3 months after classes have started during an exchange semester. There will be a separate online application that must be completed by each student studying abroad. It will have the same layout as the Pre-Approval Application, but instead it will ask for the names of the courses students were actually enrolled in and the syllabi for those courses (if they have not already been determined). Any undetermined courses will be sent again to the committee for judgment. Students will be notified of the results via email just as in the pre-approval application cycle.
If a student is dissatisfied with a course determination, they may choose to write a letter appealing to the committee for a review. This must be done immediately upon receiving the results; otherwise they must wait until the next application cycle to petition. Students should note that neither the pre-approval nor post-approval application processes will guarantee that they will receive credit for the courses they take abroad.
From here, transcripts will need to be collected from the exchange universities in order to confirm the student’s courses, credits, and grades. Official transcripts and university grade conversion scales must be mailed from the exchange university to the PHBS office. The address is:
PHBS International Office, 110
Peking University HSBC Business School
University Town, Nanshan District
Shenzhen, China 518055
Upon collecting all of the transcripts, grades will be entered into the student portal, at which point the student can log in and view. For any questions concerning the course approval and credit transfer processes, please contact the international office either by email or in person at PHBS 114.
