PIERRE, SD – Higher education leaders in South Dakota continue to collaborate and to enhance opportunities for students. The South Dakota Board of Regents and the South Dakota Board of Technical Education have signed a general education transfer agreement, which guarantees that a student who completes general education courses will be able to transfer those credits from courses between public universities and technical colleges.
Nick Wendell is with the South Dakota Board of Technical Education. “Our public education institutions in the state, both the four technical colleges and the six universities in the Board of Regents system have worked together for years to build agreement between institutions to be able to exchange credits. But that wasn’t always a seamless process,” he observes. “With this new agreement, students who take general education courses at an institution in South Dakota are assured those credits will be of value to them and will transfer to another institution within the state.”
The agreement includes courses in a wide range of disciplines, including chemistry, computers, economics, English, history, humanities, math, political science, psychology, sociology, and speech.
Wendell says the agreement between the South Dakota Board of Regents and the South Dakota Board of technical education demonstrates their desire to work together and provide a higher level of education for all the students in South Dakota.
“It’s also a statement from our two systems, that the quality of education across the 10 post-secondary institutions in the state is consistent. That’s the affirmation this articulation agreement makes.”
The South Dakota Board of Technical Education approved the transfer agreement during a meeting on March 31st, 2020, followed by the Board of Regents on April 1st, 2020. The agreement goes into effect on July 1st, according to Wendell.
“This means for students taking courses this fall, including dual credits courses taken in high school, that those are transferrable upon completion.”
The South Dakota Board of Regents is the constitutional governing body for the state’s six public universities. The South Dakota Board of Technical Education provides oversight for the four technical colleges, including Lake Area Technical College, Mitchell Technical College, Southeast Technical College, and Western Dakota Technical College.
