Ontario Council on Admission and Transfer (ONCAT)
Established in 2011, the Ontario Council on Articulation and Transfer (ONCAT) was created to enhance pathways and reduce barriers for students seeking to transfer between postsecondary educational institutions across Ontario. Its members include the 45 publicly funded colleges and universities. ONCAT and its members are guided by core principles for credit-transfer policies and procedures.
ONCAT hosts a portal ONtransfer.ca and provides an array of supports and outreach to advance its transfer goals and work in collaboration with the community as it works to guide students and create transfer opportunities in the province. In addition to promoting pathways, ONCAT also supports the postsecondary sector through research, projects, and pathway development to enhance transfer activity across the sector and to increase the knowledge and understanding of student mobility patterns and their transfer experiences.
Transfer research
ONCAT supports several projects from research, pathway development, and innovative transfer programs.
Get more information on the research projects supported by ONCAT.
Learner resources
ONTransfer.ca provides postsecondary learners with information on credit equivalencies and articulation programs for the province's postsecondary educational institutions.
In addition to course- and program-transfer information, learners can find information about collaborative degree-diploma programs and accelerated diploma programs. The guide also includes information about graduate certificate programs for learners who have completed a university degree.
Get more information about transfers in Ontario.
Universities and colleges
Through credit-transfer arrangements and course-to-course equivalency assessment, colleges and universities mutually recognize the learning achieved by a student in the other sector. Various models exist such as formal articulation agreements, established pathways, block credit policies, joint-integrated or collaborative programs, and course co-registration between educational institutions. Through joint-integrated programs, two or more distinct “free-standing” programs in two or more educational institutions are integrated into one program that is then delivered by one or more educational institutions from each sector. Course-specific equivalency assessments also occur routinely as part of the admission and transfer processes.
Application Centres
Ontario Universities' Application Centre (OUAC)
The Ontario Universities' Application Centre (OUAC) was established in 1971 through a partnership among Ontario's public postsecondary educational institutions to improve access to postsecondary education by enhancing application supports. It is the oldest hub in Canada supporting transfer students with their application and transcript needs. OUAC provides a provincial student data exchange application service and facilitates the distribution of electronic student transcripts for undergraduate admission. It also provides application supports for several graduate and professional programs. Using OUAC's website, prospective learners can search all undergraduate and select graduate programs offered by Ontario's public universities and compare admission requirements and application deadlines.
OCAS — the application service of Ontario colleges
OCAS was established in 1992 through a partnership among Ontario's public postsecondary educational institutions to streamline the application processes for Ontario colleges. Using OCAS, prospective learners can search all college programs offered by Ontario's public colleges and institutes and compare admission requirements and application deadlines.
Inter-regional Collaboration
In 1995, several Ontario universities signed the Pan-Canadian Protocol on the Transferability of University Credit. It provided guiding principles to enable the transferability of first‐ and second‐year university courses (including the final year of studies leading to a diploma of college studies [DCS] in Quebec and the university-transfer courses offered by community colleges and university colleges in British Columbia and Alberta).
In 1999, the Ontario College University Degree Completion Accord (known as the “Port Hope Accord”) identified a set of principles for developing degree-completion arrangements between publicly funded colleges and universities. Through this type of arrangement, colleges and at least one university would negotiate an articulation agreement under which graduates of a diploma program would receive full credit toward a university degree for their diploma program. Each agreement required approval by the relevant government bodies of the educational institutions.
ONCAT maintains membership in the Councils on Admissions/Articulations and Transfer of Canada Network (CATCan Network) and the Pan‐Canadian Consortium on Admissions and Transfer (PCCAT). It has also supported the ARUCC MyCreds™ | MesCertif™ National Network initiative which is creating a national document- and data-exchange network for official postsecondary transcripts and credentials, as well as virtual “wallets” for learners to advance student mobility.
Provincial degree Quality Assurance
The Ontario Universities Council on Quality Assurance (OUCQA) seeks to ensure that there is a standard of quality in the design and delivery of the province's university credentials with a focus on alignment with learning outcomes. The council reviews and approves proposals for new graduate and undergraduate programs and ensures that Ontario universities comply with quality assurance guidelines and policies.
The quality assurance body for the college sector is called the Ontario College Quality Assurance Service. Its mandate involves providing guidance and direction to improve the overall excellence of postsecondary college education through a quality-assured standard of accreditation. The service is mandated by the provincial government to provide reasonable assurance that all programs of instruction, regardless of funding source, conform to the established credentials framework and are consistent with accepted college system nomenclature and/or program titling principles. It also maintains the integrity of the credentials and protects the interests of students and employers who require a reasonable guarantee of consistency and quality in Ontario's programs of instruction.
Ressources pour les apprenantes et apprenants
Comprehensive review of this information: 2022