The Military Credit Advisory Council (MCAC) — which includes faculty and staff from the NC Community College System and the University of North Carolina System — oversees the work of establishing uniform standards for awarding credit for military occupations and courses.

Panels of academic faculty — called Military Prior Learning Academic Panels — determine the number of credits that should be awarded for various military work. The faculty panels include representatives from community colleges across the state and the UNC system; the MCAC approves the makeup of each panel before they begin their work.

To make their decisions, the panels use the military’s course catalogs, recommendations from the American Council on Education (ACE), and the catalogs of the university and community college systems. Based on their determinations, credit is granted uniformly across all 58 NC community colleges and public UNC institutions.

To date, faculty panels have identified more than 10,000 credits that can be awarded in numerous degree areas. In some cases, the prior learning has value beyond college credits. In nursing, for example, credit is also aligned with requirements for the state nursing exam.

The work of the faculty panels is ongoing. There are many more areas in which military experience can be awarded credit. New military occupations and courses are being evaluated by ACE on a regular basis, and faculty panel evaluations are ongoing.