Four-fifths
of the students who first enroll in community colleges intend to move on to a
four-year school to obtain a bachelor’s degree, yet just 32% make that transfer
within six years and even fewer graduate. A new guide aims to help improve that
rate.
The
Columbia University Community College Research Center, working with the Aspen
Institute and other research organizations, studied institutions with much higher
rates of transfer and completion. “These colleges clearly made transfers a
priority. They made transferring a default plan for every student, rather than
optional,” researcher John Fink said in an Education Dive report.
The
center’s guide identifies a number of actions institutions can take to assist
transfer students. First, two- and four-year schools must communicate with each
other about degree requirements so that curriculum can be designed to enable
students to step up to a university without taking extra classes. As it is, too
many community college students discover the course credits they earned won’t
transfer.
Community
colleges must also ensure students understand which courses they need to take
in order to move on to a four-year school. It doesn’t always occur to students
to find out degree requirements at their destination school before enrolling in
community college. That means community colleges need to establish strong
advising programs to guide students from the get-go, starting with determining
their educational goals in order to clear a path to graduation.
Schools
should also rethink their remedial classes. Students required to take these
classes, which usually don’t count toward a degree, are more likely to drop out
in frustration. Low-income students who may be among the first in their
families to attend college may also need additional help in understanding the
institution’s processes and how to apply for transfer.
