The Course Equivalency System (CES) is a McGill resource used to evaluate courses from other universities to determine whether their content is equivalent to a McGill course. You can use the CES to search for courses that have already been evaluated or to submit a new course for assessment.
The CES contains courses that McGill students have previously submitted for evaluation. It does not represent the full range of courses offered by another university. If you cannot find a course in the CES, this does not mean that the course is unavailable or cannot be considered. It may simply mean that it has not yet been evaluated by McGill.
Important: Approval in the CES only confirms that the course content has been assessed by the relevant McGill Department and found equivalent to a McGill course. It does not guarantee that you will receive transfer credit. Final decisions on transfer credit are made by the Science Office of Undergraduate Student Advising (SOUSA) according to Faculty regulations and take into account other requirements, including the course's mode of delivery.
On this page:
When to get your courses evaluated
Searching the CES (and understanding your search results)
Submitting equivalency requests
Understanding your equivalency decision
When to get your courses evaluated
Although students are always welcome to use the CES to see what courses have already been assessed, you should submit requests at a time appropriate to the activity you are taking part in.
| Activity type | When to get the course evaluated |
|---|---|
| Pre-McGill courses (i.e. courses you completed before starting your studies at McGill, this includes Dual-Enrollment) | After completing the webform available on the Pre-Admission University Transfer Credit page Note: the deadline to submit the form is September 15 |
| Exchange or Independent Study Away (Fall/Winter) | After you have been approved for Exchange/ISA |
Independent Study Away (Summer) | Before applying (you must obtain pre-approval of the course you intend to take for your Summer ISA to be approved). |
Inter-University Transfer / AEHE (Fall/Winter/Summer) | Before applying (you must obtain pre-approval of the course(s) you intend to take for your IUT/AEHE to be approved). |
Searching the CES and understanding your search results
Start by searching to see if your course has already been assessed. When searching the database note:
- Always select the box “Include Expired Decisions”
- You can search by the McGill course number/title or by the external course number/title.
- You can search by subject code or for a specific course for example “PSYC” will get you all courses evaluated by the department of Psychology at McGill and “PSYC100” would show results only for the course PSYC 100.
- You can search by country or by specific school (using the field “Institution Name”).
| Understanding your results: next steps based on your search results | |
|---|---|
Equivalent | Your course is currently equivalent to a McGill course. Click on the equivalency to see additional comments and to see when the course will expire. You cannot resubmit this course to another department. |
Not Equivalent | Your course is not equivalent to this department. Click on the equivalency to see additional comments. Sometimes the course may belong to a different department at McGill. |
Expired | This course has been assessed before but has since expired. All equivalencies are approved for a limited time (sometimes as short as one semester). You will need to submit a "Request for a Reassessment." |
Not found | Your course has not been evaluated yet. You will need to submit a new equivalency request. |
REMINDER: Approval in the CES only confirms that the course content has been assessed and found equivalent to a McGill course. It does not guarantee that you will receive transfer credit for the course. The course must still meet Faculty of Science and program requirements, as determined by SOUSA.
For example, SOUSA will not grant transfer credit for online courses, courses taken as Pass/Fail, or courses that overlap with courses you have already completed, even if they have been approved in the CES.
Submitting equivalency requests
Course syllabus checklist
To have your course evaluated, you will need to provide a detailed syllabus which must:
- Be issued by the university/college granting your course. A third-party syllabus (or high-school syllabus for dual-enrolment courses) will not be accepted.
- Be from the semester in which you took/are taking the course. For example, if you are taking the course as part of a Fall 2026 exchange, you will need to provide the Fall 2026 syllabus. For students on Exchange the previous semester/year’s syllabus may be accepted.
- Contain the following information:
Name of University / College
Year/term course syllabus was written
Course number / Title
Methods of evaluation
Mode of delivery
Full description with weekly topics
Reading list (if available)
If your course has a lab component, you must include the lab details in the syllabus
Note: a course description alone is insufficient for evaluation.
Submitting a new equivalency request
- Login to the course equivalency system with your McGill email and password.
- Click on Home
- Click on Submit a New Request and fill out the External Course information.
Note: If you are unable to select your university/college see: Missing Institution Information
- For the McGill Course information, you must select an appropriate subject and course number at McGill to review your course (e.g. PSYC 100 for an Introduction to Psychology course)
Use McGill’s Course Catalogue to look for a suitable matching of the McGill course.
No Matching Course Number: use this option if you are submitting a course that does not match a particular McGill course but would be taught by this department.
No Matching Subject: use this only if McGill does not have a corresponding subject/department for your course. You will need to select an appropriate area of study. E.g. For a language not taught at McGill like Danish, you would select “LANG” as the area of study, for a Spanish language course this would be evaluated by HISP.
- In the Comments section, you must indicate:
If your course is online or in a hybrid format.
If your course was taken pre-McGill and/or it was a Dual-Enrollment course.
If you are submitting a syllabus that is not for the current academic year, you must indicate why you are submitting an older syllabus for example “I took this course in Winter 2025.”
- Once submitted, you will receive a request number and email with your request details.
Submitting a request for reassessment
- Login to the course equivalency system with your McGill email and password.
- Search for the course that you wish to have re-evaluated and make sure you are including expired decisions.
- Click on the equivalency to open the equivalency details
- Click on Request Reassessment and upload the new course syllabus
- In the Comments section, you must indicate:
If your course is online or in a hybrid/blended format
If your course was taken pre-McGill and/or it was a Dual-Enrollment course.
If you are submitting a syllabus that is not for the current academic year, you must indicate why you are submitting an older syllabus for example “I took this course in Winter 2025”
- Once submitted, you will receive a request number and email with your request details.
Common errors
Missing institution information
If you are unable to select your University/College when submitting a new request, the institution may not have been added to the CES. To request a university be added send an email to advisor.science [at] mcgill.ca (advisor[dot]science[at]mcgill[dot]ca) with the subject line “University missing from CES” and the following information:
- Your student ID number
- Name of the Host University
- Website
- Address
- Phone Number
Once the University/College has been added to the CES system, you will receive an email from advisor.science [at] mcgill.ca (advisor[dot]science[at]mcgill[dot]ca) to inform you that you can now submit your requests.
A similar equivalency already exists
External courses should have only one valid equivalency decision at McGill. For example, if a course has been evaluated by Environment as equivalent, it should not be submitted to another department. If your course has a current equivalency, you cannot resubmit it.
If you are submitting a request that is already on the database, you will receive an error that states “A similar equivalency already exists.” This error message should also indicate the status:
- Status: Final decision – Search for this equivalency decision again (make sure you are including expired decisions). If the decision is expired, you must make a Request for Reassessment rather than a New Request.
- Status: Pending or Status: Preliminary Decision – Another student has recently submitted this course for evaluation. You should check back in a few weeks to see what the final equivalency decision was.
Understanding your equivalency decision
There are two types of equivalencies:
Direct equivalency: A course can be deemed equivalent to an existing McGill course like for example ECON 208 or PSYC 100.
Level equivalency (1XX, 2XX, etc.): If McGill doesn’t offer an exact equivalent course but the course meets McGill's course standards, a level equivalency can be granted. A PSYC 2XX course is considered to be a 200-level course Psychology course.
NOTE: You may not use 1XX equivalencies for the Math or Science components of the Foundation program. For example, PSYC 1XX is not equivalent to PSYC 100 and cannot be counted as a foundational science.
REMINDER: the Department and Faculty have the right to change your equivalency decision from what it was submitted as. For example, a course that you requested as MATH 140 could be evaluated as MATH 1XX if the department determines that is the appropriate equivalency.