#transfer-students

#transfer-students

During National Transfer Student Week, I had the opportunity to present my dissertation findings. I was eager to share insights and connect with others doing similar work. Yet my excitement quickly gave way to disappointment: Multiple organizations were hosting overlapping events. Would anyone attend my session if there were other opportunities? That moment clarified, for me, a larger truth about the transfer ecosystem.

At the University of California, Santa Barbara, about 20 percent of incoming students are transfers. More than 90 percent of those transfers come from California community colleges and aspire to complete their degree in two years. While many have achieved that goal, they often lacked time to explore campus offerings or felt pressured to complete their degree on an expedited timeline, according to institutional data.

Outside of the elite institutions that dominate the discourse, it's common for students to "swirl" between or among institutions. These are students who picked up some credits here and some there, often with breaks for life happening and/or financial issues. They often show up at community colleges in hopes of taking a few more classes to patch together an actual degree.

Upward transfer is viewed as a mechanism to provide college students with an accessible and affordable on-ramp to higher education through two-year colleges, but breakdowns in the credit-transfer process can hinder a student's progress toward their degree. A recent survey by Sova and the Beyond Transfer Policy Advisory Board found the average college student loses credits transferring between institutions and has to repeat courses they've already completed. Some students stop out of higher education altogether because transfer is too challenging.

Many students who have transfer experiences are not counted in transfer statistics, dual enrollees among them, which emphasizes the importance of understanding their unique perspectives.