A service of the Continuing Education office of the Université de Moncton for part-time students.

What is the Prior Learning Assessment (PLA)?

This means the theoretical and practical knowledge acquired during paid or unpaid work, personal occupations or any other activity that contributed to the personal training.

Under certain conditions (see the university regulations), when the knowledge or skills acquired are similar to the content of one or several university courses, such course or courses can be recognised after evaluation.

Note: These are not equivalencies. Equivalencies are granted for courses taken in another higher education institution.

Who can benefit from the PLA?

The prior learning assessment can benefit people who have been accepted in a full-time or part-time study program.

It could benefit you if your experience includes one or more of the following elements:

1. Having assumed management, planning, organisation, writing, intervention, presentation, design or direction responsibilities for a certain time.
2. Having contributed effectively to the work of a team as a paid employee or as a volunteer.
3. Having published a text on a specific topic.
4. Having read a lot on a specific topic or having reflected for a long time on a situation, a project or an issue, and being able to talk about it in an organised manner for fifteen to twenty minutes.

Procedure

1. First of all, ensure that you are accepted in a study program.

   If it hasn’t been done, the Continuing Education office on your campus can provide with you some additional information on the available programs and help you fill your registration application.

2. Carefully examine your study program and your prior learning in order to identify the courses for which you consider having fulfilled all the proposed learning.

   To do this, look in the Université de Moncton directory that is available at the Continuing Education office of your campus and choose courses in the fields you know well or even very well. Have an up-to-date copy of your resume where you mention your employment experience, occupations, volunteer activities, leisure, etc. Establish the correspondence between your resume and your program.

3. Obtain the course plan (also called summary or syllabus) of each of the courses for which you want to request a prior learning assessment.

   To do this, go to the secretariat of the school or department in charge of the courses or contact the person responsible for the prior learning assessment on your campus.

4. Group the appropriate proofs or justification elements.

   For example: a detailed resume, proof of participation or registration to workshops, job descriptions with a letter from your superior, newspaper clippings (if, for example, you were honoured during an event related to the acquisition of prior learning), photos, video presentations, a list of books you have read, an award, mention or prize you have received, etc. In summary, these are documents that will allow the responsible people to verify and assess your skills and knowledge. These items must always be related to the courses you wish to have credited by the prior learning assessment.

5. Describe the learning related to the course objectives on your list and prepare your file.

   The goal is for you to demonstrate how your learning corresponds to the learning expected by the courses in the list you have prepared. To do this, for each course, write a text that explains how you have reached the objectives of the course. You must also make reference to your supporting items (letters from employer, newspaper clippings, etc.) that must be attached to your file. Please note that a supporting item can be used for more than one course. In this case, you can make photocopies. When you have completed your file, you will have to contact the Continuing Education office of your campus. If you are unsure if your file is complete, you can meet the person in charge of the prior learning assessment. * If you wish to have several courses recognised, you can prepare your file for a course and have it examined by the person responsible before repeating the process with other courses. Please not that the value of the file depends on the content and not on the number of pages.

6. Fill the prior learning assessment form when your file is ready to be evaluation and pay the fees related to this application.

   The fees are currently $40 per credit for undergraduate courses (certificate and bachelor’s degree) and $50 per graduate credit (master’s degree, graduate diploma and certificate). You must therefore go to the Continuing Education office of your campus to receive the form and pay the fees.
   The Continuing Education office will then forward your file to the persons in charge of evaluating your prior learning. Usually, your application would be given to the dean of the school or department that offers the course. In all cases, the Continuing Education office will notify you in writing of the results of your application. This is a summary of the procedure to follow to apply for a prior learning assessment. In addition, the Université de Moncton has recently published a guide on how to apply for a prior learning assessment. This free guide will provide more details on the steps to follow along with examples and advice to help you with your application.

   Therefore, we encourage you to get that guide at the Continuing Education office of your campus.

The role of the Continuing Education office

The Continuing Education office handles the prior learning assessment requests for all the part-time students registered at the Université de Moncton.

The Continuing Education office also offers a support service for the students and evaluators. It also handles the transmission and management of the files.

Regulations

The prior learning assessment follows some university regulations. These regulations are also included in the current directory of the Université de Moncton.

For graduate studies, the prior learning assessment has to follow specific regulations and only applies at this time to programs that do not require a thesis. In addition, each application will have to be approved by the higher education committee of the school or department.

For more information on this issue, contact the Continuing Education office.

University regulations

The student who thinks he has mastered the skills or knowledge pertaining to a course, without having taken that course in a post-secondary institution, can be exempted from this course by the Université following an assessment. Such student would then receive the related credits. This exemption is based on the learning results completed during paid or unpaid work or during self-training activities.

Such an exemption is subject to the following rules:

• The person makes an application by filling the required form. The application is made regarding a specific study program and based on the objectives of the course or program. The application is usually done once, at the time of acceptance in the program or following the acceptance in the program.
• The candidates need to demonstrate their knowledge. This must be measurable and related to the objectives of the course for a given program.
• The Université will grant the credits upon recommendation from the dean, school director or from the school responsible for the course after an assessment made by members of the faculty in the applicable field, and based on the established application conditions.
• In all, the credits granted by prior learning assessment cannot represent more than one quarter of the credits required for the diploma. The vice-president in charge of education and research authorises the exemptions.
• The assessment will yield a Successful (S) or Unsuccessful (NS) grade. In the case of a Success (S), the grade and credits are registered in the student’s file.
• There will be a mention in the transcript that these credits were obtained through a prior learning assessment.