International Transcripts

Students at AIU are required to have on file all official transcripts for any institutions of higher education previously attended. This is required for all transcripts, including transcripts from international secondary schools and/ or institutions of higher education. International institutions must be licensed or officially recognized by the Education Department or Ministry of the country where the institution is in operation to be eligible for transfer of credit or degree status. AIU follows strict policies concerning academic integrity. Students with international educational credentials must submit authentic international academic documents from all upper-secondary and post-secondary educational institutions to AIU or an approved credential evaluation service.

Evidence of valid international educational credentials can be from a University-approved international credential evaluation agency. Additionally, credentials may be accepted in pre-approved circumstances with a written evaluation from a properly trained credential evaluator employed by the University. This is required for all transcripts, including transcripts from international secondary schools if provided and/or institutions of higher education, which may require a credential evaluation.

While the University Registrar's Office makes every attempt to review the eligibility of international transcripts in-house, it is the student's responsibility to ensure that AIU has received all documents needed to make this assessment up to and including a transcript evaluation. Because of the time it can take for an evaluation to be completed by one of the approved institutions, AIU recommends students to begin the evaluation process at the time of enrollment. The University Registrar Department will ultimately verify and/or certify the institution's eligibility for transfer credit or degree equivalency. In the event that the international institution's transcript was not translated by the institution into English, the student must provide an official copy of an English translation prepared by a recognized academic translation service. Translation service information is available from the University Registrar's Office. The translations and/or evaluations are prepared at the student's expense. The student is required to request translation for any non-English documents and is responsible for all translation costs incurred.

Several credential evaluation services are available to students. Acceptable evaluations may only come from evaluation services that are a member of NACES (National Association of Credential Evaluation Services, Inc.), AICE (Association of International Credential Evaluators, Inc.), or NARIC (National Academic Recognition Information Centre). AIU will consider evaluations and/or recommendations directly from AACRAO (American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers). AIU recommends the service of Educational Perspectives; however, the service remains the student's choice. Students are responsible for all applicable fees.

The Admissions Department should inform students who may have pursued postsecondary educational study internationally that the applicant's assistance may be required in requesting these documents. If it is impossible for the institution the student previously attended to release a document, the student may be requested to send official records (such as student certified copies of transcripts or grade reports) to the University Registrar Department for verification. After the documents are authenticated, the original documents will be returned to the student.