Letters of Permission | Queen's University Faculty of Arts and Science

Eligibility

Students

In order to be eligible for a Letter of Permission, students must be:

In good academic standing and have a minimum cumulative GPA of 1.60 when taking courses at the visiting institution.
Have completed a minimum of 6.0 units on a degree program in the Faculty of Arts and Science. A conditional Letter of Permission may be granted for first year students without 6.0 units yet completed if the mid-year GPA is a minimum of 1.60. The Letter of Permission will be valid upon meeting the conditions above.
Have no more than 3.0 units of incomplete (IN) grades in a previous term.
Students completing their final courses of must meet all minimum Plan GPAs and cumulative GPA requirements for their degree.
Be pursuing their first undergraduate degree. Non-degree seeking students, post-degree students, and second-degree students cannot take courses on a letter of permission.

Courses

In order to be eligible for a Letter of Permission, courses must be:

Taken at an accredited Canadian university, or an international university approved by the International Programs Office.
Developed, assessed, and delivered by the accredited degree-granting university to which the Letter of Permission is issued for.
Equivalent in unit weight and have a similar number of instructional hours and duration (i.e., weeks) as a comparable Faculty of Arts and Science course. Courses offered during the December/Winter break are not eligible for transfer credit. Courses offered in a significantly condensed format and/or intersession courses are not eligible for transfer credit.
Completed within the articulation term to which the Letter of Permission applies.
Graded. No Pass/Fail or non-evaluative grades will be accepted for transfer credit.
Courses must be requested from a university, as college courses are not deemed transferrable. Must not exceed the regular term limits in combination with Queen's courses.

In order to be eligible to take the course, students must:

Meet all requisites for the Queen’s equivalent course
Have no exclusions which may impact the course transfer
Be within the total limit of transfer credits for both their degree and all plan requirements

The following types of courses may not be approved for transfer credit:

Non-academic courses (e.g., internships).
Courses that are less than 6 weeks and/or 36 contact hours (for a 3.0-unit course).
Academic and/or practical courses that are at the community college or high school level.
Intersessional courses (i.e., between terms).
Courses that are graded on a Pass/Fail or another non-graded basis.
Language courses that are only awarded a certificate and not on an official transcript.
Courses that would be assessed as courses from another faculty (i.e., Faculty of Education, Faculty of Law, Smith Engineering, and School of Nursing).
Courses that would be assessed as Smith School of Business BCOM-restricted courses.

Guides and Regulations

Students completing their Undergraduate degree within the Faculty of Arts and Science are permitted to take a maximum of 6.0 units of courses via a LOP. This includes both domestic and international LOP applications. If you are planning to apply for an LOP, please ensure you have not exceeded this limit.

Further details and information on what courses are eligible to take on a letter of permission can be found in the academic calendar under Academic Regulation 14, Academic Regulation 16, and in our LOP guidebook.

Timelines

Most LOP requests can take up to 4 weeks or more to be processed. Please keep this in mind in relation to external institution deadlines for applications or registration. We strongly recommend you wait for a response before applying at the external institution. Enrolling in and/or paying for a course at an external institution prior to receiving a response would be at your own risk as the request may be denied. Retroactive LOP submissions are not guaranteed to be approved.

Submission Process

You can apply for your Letter of Permission in SOLUS on the Student Centre page. You can find the portal under “Academic Records” and then under “Evaluate my transfer credits”. The payment for your LOP will be requested at the end of the application through SOLUS.

You will be required to submit a course syllabus for each course you are hoping to take. Failure to submit a course syllabus may result in your application being denied. This syllabus must include:

Name and contact information of the instructor teaching the course
Date and duration of the course
A course description and course code
Host university’s pre-requisites for the course
Textbook information
Method of evaluation
Breakdown of lectures per class

When the request is submitted, a course may be listed as “No Rule” or “Rejected” does not necessarily mean that you cannot take the course. In most cases, the course simply needs to be re-evaluated by our office. Additionally, if you do not put in a correct year (e.g., putting in “3” instead of “2023”), the course can show as “No Rule” even if there is already an evaluated Queen’s equivalent course.

Please be sure to enter the Year correctly for each course. Additionally, if your Articulation Term is listed as Fall 2023, you cannot list courses from other terms (e.g., Winter 2024) or these will be rejected. If you do not begin your course(s) in the Articulation Term listed on your LOP, your transfer credits may be rejected.

If approved, you will receive a letter stating the approval, articulation term, external university, and course equivalencies.

Applying to the External Institution

Applying to the external institution is the student’s responsibility. Students should follow the external institution’s guidelines for this.

Students must apply for admission as a visiting student at the external institution. Applying as a degree seeking student jeopardizes a student’s registration status at Queen’s University.

We strongly recommend you wait for a response before applying to the external institution. Enrolling in and/or paying for a course at an external institution prior to receiving a response would be at your own risk as the request may be denied. Retroactive LOP submissions are not guaranteed to be approved.

Tuition and fees must be paid by the student directly to the external institution, by its deadlines.

Course Completion

Once you have completed your courses and your grades appear on your external transcript, please have the university send your official transcript to either FAS or the IPO. This can be done directly through email or through a third-party application (i.e., MyCreds or Transcript). We do not accept transcripts directly from students.

Alternatively, if digital means are not available, we will accept official transcripts through traditional mail. Keep in mind that this process is much slower and can take extra time when transferring your courses over.

Students who are granted a LOP to complete the final course(s) of their degree program at an external institution must have their transcript sent to us in a timely manner to be transferred in time for graduation.

Please be aware it can take up to 3 weeks to review and process transfer credits once received.

Frequently Asked Questions

I have an extenuating circumstance and would like to take more than 6.0 units of courses on LOP. What should I do?
Students with extenuating circumstances preventing them from studying on campus and students who have a unique learning opportunity available who need to take more than 6.0 units of courses on an LOP may submit a petition to the Associate Dean (Academic) to request an exception.
How are course equivalencies evaluated?
Student Services will coordinate with departments on our campus to verify that the course(s) of interest can be transferred for credit back to Queen’s and match the learning outcomes of the course with an equivalent that is offered here.
What if I start a course in one term and finish it in another?
As long as you begin your course(s) within the articulation term indicated on your letter, your LOP will remain valid, even if it takes you longer than a term to complete them (so long as it is allowed by the host institution). Students must spend a minimum of 6 weeks in self-paced courses (e.g., most undergraduate courses at Athabasca Univ) for their courses to be considered transferable.
Will my course contribute to my GPA?
Only courses completed at Queen's are included in these totals; however, transfer credits do appear on your Queen's transcript and contribute towards your degree requirements. Please refer to your Academic Advisement Report for conﬁrmation. TR credits count toward your degree program requirements but are not included in your GPA.