CES Religious Education Graduation and Transfer Requirements

June 1, 2015

Graduation from each of the CES institutions (BYU, BYU-Idaho, BYU-Hawaii and Institutes of Religion) requires 14 credit hours of religious education classes. Graduation requirements include both a content and a residency requirement.

Content Requirement:Graduation requirements now include the four Cornerstone courses as core requirements plus six additional elective credits. Courses with the same number and similar title are considered equivalent across all CES institutions, and whether taken at or transferred into an institution, will fulfill the content requirement for graduation. Institute classes qualifying for transfer credit will be taught by an instructor with at least a bachelor’s degree.

Residency Requirement: Each institution determines how many religious education credits a student must complete on-campus. For transfer students, this requirement may increase the number of credits needed to graduate. For example, if a student has completed several courses at one CES institution before transferring to another, depending on the residency requirement of the institution, the courses transferred may meet the content requirement but not the residency requirement (see table below).

New Students: All institutions have agreed that beginning Fall 2015 new students will need to complete the four Cornerstone courses as core requirements plus six additional elective credits to graduate.

Current Students: Current students fulfill graduation requirements using former guidelines. Individual institutions may allow students to choose to use Cornerstone classes to fulfill core requirements.

Transfer students: Depending on the total number of credit hours a student transfers, each CES institution usesa formula or scale for determining the number of religion credits (residency) remaining for graduation (see table below).

BYU BYU-Hawaii BYU-Idaho[1] / Institutes & LDSBC
Content Requirement / 4 Cornerstone courses (8 credits) plus 6 elective credits
Religion Residency Requirement for
Transfer Students / Total Credits Transferred:
0-14
15-29
30-44
45-59
60-74
75-89
90+ / Religion Credits Remaining:
14
12
10
8
6[2]
42
22 / Not applicable
Approved Substitutions / For Religion 200: The Eternal Family - Religion 333: Teachings of the Living Prophets from BYU only.
For Religion 225: Foundations of the Restoration - None
For Religion 250: Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel - Religion 211: The Gospels from BYU only.
For Religion 275: Teachings and Doctrine of the Book of Mormon - Religion 121 AND 122: Book of Mormon / For Religion 275: Teachings and Doctrine of the Book of Mormon - Religion 121 AND 122: Book of Mormon

[1]BYU-I Online & Institute transferable credits satisfy content and residency requirement BYU-I.

[2]More credits may be needed if the core content requirement has not been completed.

Note: individual websites and institutional catalogs are still being updated