How the ASEAN Credit Transfer System (ACTS) Lets Students Bank Credits Across Member Universities
By Muntasir Minhaz • Published Aug 07, 2026 • Study in Southeast Asia
ACTS, the ASEAN Credit Transfer System, lets you carry course credits earned during an exchange at another AUN member university back to your home degree. Your host university sends your transcript to your home university, which then records the credits against your original degree plan.
🎓 ACTS only works between AUN member universities, not every university in ASEAN.
It was built to handle different grading scales and credit systems across member countries.
Your host university sends your certificate and transcript to your home international office.
Your home university, not the host, decides how the credits count toward your degree.
Confirm your course-by-course credit mapping before you start the exchange, not after.
What ACTS Is
The ASEAN Credit Transfer System (ACTS) is a student-centered system that AUN, the ASEAN University Network, built to support student mobility between its member universities. AUN created ACTS specifically to handle a practical problem: member universities across different ASEAN countries grade on different scales and structure credits differently, so a course completed abroad does not automatically translate into a number your home university recognizes. ACTS gives universities a shared process for recording and transferring those credits, according to the AUN Secretariat .
How Credit Transfer Works Step by Step
You enroll in courses at a host university, usually through the AIMS Programme or a direct AUN student exchange agreement.
You complete the coursework and receive grades from the host university.
The host university's international office sends your certificate and official transcript to your home university's international relations office.
Your home university reviews the transcript and transfers the earned credits into your academic record, applying its own rules for how the host institution's grades and credit values map onto its own system.
Your home university makes the final call on how credits count toward your degree requirements. ACTS standardizes the transfer mechanism between the two institutions. It does not force your home university to accept every course automatically.
Which Universities Participate
ACTS applies specifically to AUN member universities, a group of around 30 core institutions across ASEAN's member countries. Not every university in the region uses ACTS. If your host university is an AUN member, ACTS governs the transfer. If it is not, your home university's standard, separate credit transfer policy applies instead, and you should check with your international office which process covers your specific exchange before you commit to courses.
How ACTS Handles Different Grading Scales
ASEAN countries do not share one grading scale. Some universities grade on a 4.0 GPA scale, others on a 100-point scale, and others on a letter system with different cutoffs for each grade. ACTS does not force every university onto one shared scale. Instead, your home university converts your host university's grade into its own equivalent, using its own conversion table. This differs from ECTS in Europe, where a common reference grading distribution exists alongside local grades. Ask your home university's registrar for its specific ACTS grade conversion table before your exchange, so you know roughly how a grade abroad will appear on your home transcript.
What Happens If a Course Does Not Transfer
Sometimes a home university reviews a transcript and decides a specific course does not match anything in your degree plan closely enough to count. When this happens under ACTS, you typically have two options: petition your academic department with the course syllabus for a manual review, or accept the course as free elective credit if your program allows it. Neither option is automatic, so raise a potential mismatch with your academic advisor as early as possible, ideally before you enroll in the course abroad rather than after you return with a completed transcript.
Where ACTS Fits Alongside AIMS and AUN-QA
ACTS works alongside AUN's other mechanisms rather than replacing them. The AIMS Programme gets you placed at a host university in the first place. AUN-QA checks the quality of the programs you might study in. ACTS then handles what happens to the credits you earn once your exchange ends. Knowing which mechanism does what saves you from asking your international office the wrong question when something does not transfer as expected.
What This Means for Your Degree
ACTS reduces the risk of losing a semester's progress when you study at another AUN member university, since both sides work from a shared, established process rather than negotiating credit transfer from scratch. It does not guarantee every course you take abroad counts toward your specific degree requirements at home. Confirm your course-by-course credit mapping with your home university's academic advisor or international office before your exchange starts, get it in writing, and keep copies of your host university's course syllabi in case your home university needs them to verify course content later.
Practical Tips Before You Rely on ACTS
Ask both your home and host university's international offices to confirm, in writing, which courses map to which requirements before you enroll.
Keep your host university's syllabus and grading rubric for every course, since your home university may ask for supporting evidence beyond the transcript.
Check whether your home university caps the number of credits it accepts from an exchange, since some programs limit how much of your degree you can complete abroad.
If your host university is not an AUN member, ask specifically what transfer policy applies instead of assuming ACTS covers it.
If you plan to apply for graduate school using this transcript, ask early how your home university documents the exchange semester, since some programs list it as a separate notation rather than blending grades directly into your GPA.