13. Timeliness

Lack of timeliness on the part of some receiving institutions is the most common complaint about the current articulation process. In 2006-07, requests for articulation of a course took on average 72 days for a decision and response (Winsemann, 2007). This ranged among large receiving institutions from over 80 days to fewer than 30 days and did not seem to depend on the overall volume of requests. Response times also varied by discipline: business course articulations took longer to resolve than those in Arts or Science, for reasons that are unclear. However, this is not the whole picture, because it fails to track requests that were not completed within that period. Large receiving institutions completed widely varying proportions of the total requests they received, the remainder presumably becoming a residual backlog. The following data are from TCES 2006 - 07 statistics.

The articulation process depends on timely responses to requests if it is to be sustainable and efficient. While it is hard to say what a minimum standard rate of response should be, rates below 50% are clearly unsatisfactory. Good practice would suggest that if one institution can achieve almost 80% completion, then others should aim no lower. Thirty days is a reasonable time to expect resolution, in most cases.

The articulation process depends on timely responses to requests if it is to be sustainable and efficient.

To achieve timely response to articulation requests, a new receiving institution will need to have addressed the issues in this Guide through planning, training and resource allocation.

BEST PRACTICES - RECEIVING INSTITUTION completes articulation requests in 30 days sets up process to ensure that this standard is met consistently

Previous Section:

Next Section: