As veterans of the Iraq War return home and embark on college careers, more schools are reevaluating their policy on accepting military experience as transfer credits. The University of Missouri (MU) has created a task force to devise and implement a new policy that would allow veterans to transfer in credits for military education and service.

One in five colleges does not give academic credit for military education, according to a survey of 723 schools by the American Council on Education (ACE). Even more—36 percent—do not award any credit for military occupational training.
 
At MU, there is no policy to universally accept military transfer credit, although some credits have been accepted before.

The MU task force, created in 2008, proposed several changes in policy that would expand student veterans' ability to transfer course credits. However, the proposed changes are not final and still face a number of questions.  During the most recent meeting, attendees questioned how the proposals would impact accreditation and be implemented. 
 
Executive committee member Bill Wiebold said another issue the task force faces is whether to make the program retroactive, allowing currently enrolled veterans to transfer credits from years past.
 
"If someone is already on campus and admitted, can they now go back and have some of these military courses counted in their program?" he asked. "It seems appropriate to me to allow students who are already here to go ahead and bring those credits in."
 
In the past, courses accredited only by the ACE have not been accepted as transfer credit at MU. With this proposal, departments will need to choose exactly which courses can be accepted.
 
The proposal will be considered at the next faculty council meeting on Feb. 18.


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