review, approved, course approval stamp of approval

About Course Approval

Reimagining the Study Abroad Course Approval Process — for Everyone Involved

Designed to Be Intelligent & Adaptive

Course Approval is the study abroad course database that helps study-abroad offices build solutions around their existing workflows—not the other way around.

Unlike one-size-fits-all tools, we prioritize features that give study-abroad teams more control, transparency, and flexibility.

"While teams strive for efficiency, the key often overlooked lies in optimizing the course-approval workflow and removing silos.

Embracing the power of streamlining and implementing effective strategies not only accelerates the approval process but empowers your cross-campus teams to achieve more with fewer resources."

— Project Management Team, Course Approval

Our Mission

We exist to help empower global learning through smarter systems and seamless collaboration across campuses — all in one simple study abroad management software.

Whether you’re a faculty reviewer, academic advisor, registrar, or student, we believe in the power of having access to timely & actionable information.

"Study-abroad offices frequently express a desire to assist students efficiently by avoiding the need to reinvent the wheel for each student and course, in the realm of course selection. This analogy accurately captures the challenge.

For students, study-abroad professionals, academic advisors, and registrars, streamlining the course selection and approval process is crucial. It significantly contributes to making education abroad more accessible, less overwhelming, and easier for everyone involved."

— CEO, Course Approval

Built by Experts in Education & Technology

Our team is made up of education consultants, software engineers, and designers who understand the intricacies of global education. With decades of combined experience, we’ve developed a platform that is both agile and robust—capable of handling tens of thousands of course records and coordinating multiple stakeholders with ease.

We collaborate closely with universities, ensuring that every workflow aligns with how your campus truly operates. Whether you’re managing 500 or 50,000 courses, Course Approval is built to adapt, scale, and evolve with your needs.

"It is so important to be able to offer transparency to a student, and Course Approval allows faculty the space and access they need to inform and provide the sorts of honest, up-front answers to a student who is needing to discuss course-equivalency options.

"Course Approval serves to bridge the gap between advisors and study abroad office staff by creating a space where the campus community can access needed information to help a student succeed."

— SUNY Cortland

Member — The Forum on Education Abroad

Course Approval is proud to be a member of the Forum, an organization dedicated to advancing quality and academic integrity in global education.

We share the Forum’s mission to ensure that education abroad is thoughtfully designed and student-centered.  

As a member, we gain access to a network of peers, resources, and best practices that help us strengthen our processes and continually improve the course evaluation and credit approval experience.

The Forum’s commitment to academic rigor in global education aligns closely with our mission to support institutions in delivering academically sound international programs.

SCHEDULE A WALKTHROUGH

Built for Transparency & Collaboration

Our study abroad course equivalency platform empowers everyone involved in the course approval process.

STUDENTS

See what’s approved and stay on track

FACULTY

Evaluate once & eliminate redundant work

ADVISORS

Give clear answers without constant delays

REGISTRARS

Get standardized data with access to audit trails

HOW IT WORKS

GoAbroad 1st Place Innovative Technology badge

Celebrating Innovation in
Study Abroad Technology

Course Approval is honored to receive the 2025 GoAbroad Award for Innovative Technology for its collaboration with Michigan Engineering.

Together, we implemented a customized platform that simplifies international course evaluation workflows and opens more global learning opportunities for engineering students.

COURSE APPROVAL FAQ

You asked — we answered.

Yes, Course Approval supports data exchange across platforms through tools like Make.com and Zapier, offering flexible options for integration.

We also provide standard CSV export formats for every report in the system, making it easy to share and analyze data in other systems.

Institutions like the University of Michigan and the University of Illinois have successfully used Course Approval alongside their existing infrastructure, demonstrating how the platform can adapt to complex environments.

Yes, the system supports automated course expirations and alerts, multiple equivalencies per host course, and flexible formatting options. Bulk upload tools are available for importing legacy equivalencies, making it easy to get started or update large datasets.

While the system does not currently include duplicate prevention, we are actively developing AI-powered notifications to help identify and flag potential duplicate entries more effectively. These features are already supporting complex environments at institutions like Seattle University and the University of Tampa.

Distinct views for study abroad admin, faculty reviewers, academic advisors, the registrar, and students are supported. Easy field customization and a full-featured sandbox for testing and training are available. The greatest challenge with implementation has been with universities not having accurate access to who their academic advisors are. We have come across this often, but have developed strategies for keeping the workflow moving across all aspects of post decision.

Course Approval is offered as a SaaS solution with flexible 3- to 5-year contract options designed to fit a variety of institutional needs. The base platform is affordably priced, and institutions can scale functionality over time based on their goals.

While advanced integrations can add to the total cost, we recommend a strategic approach to prioritize the most impactful connections, ensuring maximum return on investment through thoughtful workflow automation. Many schools find that flexibility in scope helps reduce costs while achieving long-term efficiency.

All implementations include robust support: a dedicated help desk and ticketing system, plus direct access to a customer success manager who ensures your team has ongoing guidance and personalized assistance.

Course Approval is a cloud-based SaaS platform designed with security and compliance at its core. We fully comply with FERPA and GDPR, ensuring that your data is handled responsibly and lawfully.

All data is encrypted in transit using TLS 1.2+ with 2,048-bit keys, and encrypted at rest using AES-256 standards. Data is securely hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS), remains fully owned by your institution, and can be exported at any time.

The platform supports Single Sign-On (SSO) and granular, role-based permissions to ensure users only access the data relevant to their role.

Our incident response plan includes structured procedures, post-incident reviews, and a continuous improvement process. Security is integrated throughout the development lifecycle through both automated and manual code reviews aligned with industry best practices.

Course Approval's platform is SOC 2 certified and provides a HECVAT Lite for institutional IT teams.

Course Approval is built to be fully customizable. Each installation is tailored from the ground up to meet the unique needs of the institution—there’s no one-size-fits-all version.

Looking ahead, we’re focused on strengthening the end-to-end workflow experience. We’re actively collaborating with UI/UX specialists to uncover new integration opportunities and further streamline shared processes for study abroad offices.

Our client base includes a diverse range of institutions, all of which can serve as references. We’re proud to support universities that prioritize innovation, such as Grand Valley State University and Texas Christian University, where Course Approval is already embedded in highly intricate environments.

Don't see your question?
Reach out to us at support@courseapproval.com