Penn State officials testified Wednesday that legislation attempting to define a universal credit transfer system between some Pennsylvania colleges would be "impractical" and "damaging" to a student's education.

The legislation, which was presented in the Senate, aims to make core classes equivalent between the 14 state-owned universities, 14 community colleges and the four state-related universities, so students would have a less difficult time transferring credits.

"We want to make sure that there are good, high standards set by the faculty and that the credits that are passed from one university to the other are certifiable," said Senate Education Committee Chairman Sen. James Rhoades, R-Schuylkill, who is sponsoring the bill.

However, Penn State officials who attended the hearing in Harrisburg said the measure may restrict students' class choices and career opportunities.

"A universal approach would be impractical and damaging to the options available to students of the commonwealth," Rob Pangborn, university vice president and dean for undergraduate education, stated in his testimony. "It would make continuous change and improvement -- so vital in today's fast-paced world -- almost impossible."

Transfer students often run the risk of losing some credits in the process of transferring; therefore, they end up losing time and money, Rhoades said.

The solution lies in simplifying the process, said Randall Deike, associate vice president for enrollment management and executive director for undergraduate admissions.

"We have well-defined and articulated credit-transfer policies," Deiki said. "We have also developed an extensive database available to students via the Web, which includes over 225,000 courses from over 2,300 institutions around the world to help prospective students understand how a course they have taken, or would like to take, will transfer to Penn State."

Penn State wants other universities to establish such a Web site where questions and confusion would be addressed, Deike said.

"The proposed legislation presents a serious risk of reducing educational quality rather than raising it up and strengthening it," Pangborn said, "and [it] could inadvertently do real damage to the essence of the research university."

However, Rhoades said the legislation would not lower standards but define a standard for all universities.

"Knowledge is not a monopoly of one particular institution," Rhoades said. "The base core knowledge that institutions are teaching should be accessible and transferable for all students."

Katie McCormick (sophomore-aerospace engineering) said she agrees that core class credits should be easily transferable from university to university.

"I would hope that if I was taking a class in physics at Penn State and my friend was taking the same course at UCLA that they would be teaching us the same information and that we would be getting the same knowledge," McCormick said.