Centre for Academic Excellence

Educational Pathways

Explore Pathways to Further Education

At Niagara College, we offer a variety of educational pathways that help you take the next step in your academic and professional journey. Whether you’re looking to transfer to a university, advance your current diploma, or explore international opportunities, our pathway articulations give you an accessible and affordable way to achieve your academic goals.

What are Educational Pathways?

Educational pathways provide you with a faster, more structured way to continue your education after completing a certificate, diploma, advanced diploma, or degree at Niagara College. With a pathway articulation, you can transfer credits or get advanced standing into your target credential, or move into a graduate-level program at our partner institutions.

Incoming Pathways

Prospective students looking to apply to Niagara College with an existing credential, can apply for transfer credits, equivalencies and advanced standing through Enrolment Services. Be sure to use our interactive Pathways Finder tool to explore formal incoming pathway agreements that may benefit you. If there are no pathway options available for your program, you can still apply for individual transfer credits through Enrolment Services.

Outgoing Pathways

Current Niagara College students or alumni looking to further their education and/or apply to another institution, can also use our Pathways Finder tool to explore outgoing pathway options. Select your program, desired degree, or transfer destination to see a customized list of pathway opportunities.

Articulation Agreement Process

1. Creation
An overview of the creation process. Long description follows.
Chart Long Description: There are 3 stages to the creation process. Stage 1 – Key drivers are external partners, CAE and Deans/Associate Deans. Stage 2 – Articulation agreement is vetted through CAE and external partner. Stage 3 – Signatures from Vice President, Academic Deans/Associate Deans are required.

There are typically three key drivers who initiate an articulation agreement: our external partner institutions, Deans or Associate Deans (AD’s), and the Centre for Academic Excellence (CAE).

Agreement proposals from external partners can be made to the CAE or to a Dean or Associate Dean. Or, Deans or AD’s can contact schools with proposed pathway opportunities. The CAE’s role is to review the proposal through the lens of Academic Quality and make recommendations to the Dean/AD’s. After the agreement is approved by the Dean and AD the CAE will collect signatures from the external partner institution along with signatures from Niagara College’s Vice-President, Academic as well as Deans and Associate Deans.

The articulation agreement will specify which Niagara College programs are included, which degree students can transfer into, the GPA required for admission consideration and the transfer credit allocated. It may also include more detailed information on admission procedures and set an expiration date.

To contact the CAE regarding a potential articulation agreement please email:
[email protected].

2. Implementation
An overview of the implementation process. Long description follows.
Chart Long Description: There are 3 stages to the implementation process. Stage 1 – Update records, post internally, post externally. Stage 2 – Send notice to Deans/Associate Deans, Coordinators, Academic Advisors and Students. Stage 3 – CAE works with Academic Advisors to ensure currency.

After the agreement has been signed by all parties, the CAE attaches a Articulation Cover Sheet Checklist to the front of the agreement. This sheet provides an overview of the terms of the agreement and ensures that the agreement is filed correctly, posted in various outlets and the college community has been informed of the agreement.

The CAE will add the agreement to our internal database, our Credit Transfer webpage, and post the agreement on the departmental and corporate drives.  If it is an inbound agreement within Ontario (from another institution to Niagara College), it is posted on www.ontransfer.ca. This website lists all formal articulation agreements in Ontario.

A notice of the new agreement is sent out to the appropriate Dean and Associate Dean, Coordinator, Academic Advisor and students.

Academic Advisors work directly with students to explain articulation agreements and assist with the transfer process. The CAE ensures that Academic Advisors are equipped to speak to the articulation agreements, and acts as a support and secondary contact for students.

3. Quality Assurance
An overview of the quality assurance process. Long description follows.
Chart Long Description: There are 2stages to the quality assurance process. Stage 1 – Ongoing maintenance and assessment during cyclical program review. Stage 2 – Feedback from students.

The CAE ensures that all articulation agreements are kept up to date and are renewed where necessary.  When changes are made to Niagara College program curriculum, this could affect the credit transfer in articulation agreements.  The CAE sends updated curriculums to partner institutions for assessment when modifications to programs are approved through the academic governance process.

The CAE also works with program areas to assess the currency and quality of our articulation agreements during our six year cyclical program review process.

Feedback is welcomed from Niagara College students who have used our articulation agreements.

To contact the CAE with feedback regarding our articulation agreements please email:

[email protected].


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