Petitions

Courses taken in residence will only satisfy Core Curriculum requirements if the course is listed as a Core Course during the semester it was taken. UT Austin does not generally accept in-residence coursework in substitution for Core Curriculum requirements. The Core Curriculum rules and course lists are developed by faculty committees and approved by the Faculty Council, The University of Texas System, and Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. We take these requirements very seriously and enforce them strictly for students in all majors.

Transfer credit accepted in any form by the Office of Admissions (directly equivalent to a UT Austin course number, general credit within a field of study, or general elective credit) may be used to satisfy Core Curriculum requirements. Transfer coursework petitioned to satisfy a core component area requirement is evaluated based on the Student Competencies of the core component area to which the student proposes that it apply.

You or your academic advisor can submit a Core Curriculum petition at any point. If you feel a course you’ve already taken, are enrolled in now, or plan to take in the future qualifies for Core Curriculum credit, it is best petition for it as early as possible. Petitions are processed weekly, but during busy times, it can take up to two weeks for the petition to be reviewed.

Please read the instructions on the form carefully and consider discussing options with an academic advisor before submitting the petition. The staff in the Vick Advising Excellence Center is available to consult with you on any questions about Core Curriculum petitions you or your advisor may have. Make an appointment online. If you need information about Flag Substitution Petitions visit the Skills & Experience Flags website.

Information needed for a petition

  • Semester and year in which you took the course
  • Institution where you took the course
  • Course number as assigned by the non-UT institution
  • Course title
  • UT Austin course equivalency number (course number as evaluated and appears on your UT record)

You will also need to include a syllabus from the semester in which you took the course. If a syllabus from the semester in which the course was taken is not available, the following options are acceptable: a syllabus from a more recent semester; a word doc created by you or your advisor that has a course description (official language from institution’s catalog preferred though aa student’s summary may be accepted); or examples of the student’s work/assignments from the course. You can also search the internet and/or contact the institution/professor to try to get older syllabi to the best of your ability.

Petitions for Pre-approval of Coursework not yet taken

If you are considering taking coursework elsewhere and hope that it will satisfy Core Curriculum requirements, it is recommended that you petition for pre-approval as early as possible.
The Transfer Credit Resources page maintained by the Office of Admissions containts resources that may be helpful to students transferring credit to UT Austin including:

  • Automated Transfer Equivalency System – helps you determine how your transfer credit from another Texas institution will be evaluated by the Office of Admissions.
  • Core Curriculum Transfer Guides – for coursework completed at Austin Community College and other Texas community colleges.
  • Common Transfer Credit Issues – helps you to understand and avoid typical difficulties in using transfer courses to fulfill UT Austin degree requirements.
  • Coursework Pre-Evaluation – complete and submit online to the Office of Admissions in order to determine how a course from a non-Texas public institution will be evaluated on your record.

Study Abroad Petitions

It is strongly recommended that you petition the Education Abroad course(s) for evaluation by both UGS and the International Office well before you register. Please check the My Credit Abroad website to see if any courses have already been pre-approved from a particular foreign institution:

It is your responsibility to have your course(s) evaluated by Education Abroad before going abroad, during your program, or as soon as possible upon your return. This is essential to ensure that the course is added to your record. UGS cannot perform an override to have an approved course count until it appears with a course abbreviation and course number on your academic record.

Returning Students

In reviewing petitions for returning students who attended the University prior to the adoption of the current Core Curriculum, the Core Curriculum Petitions Committee considers which courses on the student’s record might have been used for a previous similarly-related requirement. If courses taken in the past reasonably align with current Core Curriculum requirements, it may be possible to petition them for core component area requirements. View a printable copy of approximate mapping of previous UT general education requirements to current Core Curriculum requirements.

Because each student’s situation is unique, we will work with students and advisors on a case-by-case basis if there are questions about how past credit counts in the degree audit and what courses or Core Curriculum requirements may need to be petitioned for credit. Please email us with questions.