Common Course Numbering (CCN)

Approved through Senate Bill 233 in 2021, the state of Oregon established a group called the Transfer Council, which is charged with developing a CCN system to allow seamless transfer of the most-transferred courses among public universities and community colleges. The Transfer Council appoints faculty subcommittees for each subject area (each has 8 university and 8 community college representatives) to develop a recommendation for alignment of elements for courses in that subject area. 

A designator (Z) will be amended to the end of each common course number to denote that it is part of the CCN System and therefore transferable across all institutions (e.g., COMM 111Z).

Six required course elements: 

• Subject code/prefix 

• Number 

• Title

• Description

• Learning outcomes

• Credits  

Once the Transfer Council's final course recommendations are finalized by the Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC), schools offering the CCN courses must adopt these elements as approved by the state. 

All instructors teaching a CCN course must ensure course details match state-approved course elements and adjust curriculum accordingly.