Student Transfer Flexibility: Adapting Policies for Student Success

In one of the most striking study results, fifty percent of MSCHE’s reacting organizations claimed they believe that institutions must use similar adaptability for students who move and/or have previous learning as they provide for trainees in teach-out scenarios (138 establishments reacted to the survey, with a 30 percent reaction price). Members of the PAB shared this searching for at MSCHE’s Annual Fulfilling in December 2024, and a MSCHE member articulated the complying with effective representation: “We flex that way constantly for our own self-interest when we wish to shut one of our own programs.”

We understand that 80 percent of community college students across the country plan to finish a bachelor’s level, yet just 31 percent transfer to a four-year establishment within 6 years of access. When they are successful in moving, transfer pupils often outshine their peers that start and remain at the very same establishment.

Teach-out plans, while they differ by accreditor, are normally created to aid other institutions flexibly approve and use pupils’ coursework to a level or credential in order to aid influenced students complete their researches in a timely style. In such arrangements, the expressed goal is to apply the guidelines in ways that help bring students in and flex those regulations that would properly leave students out.

The Challenge of Credit Transfer Policies

We share these findings not to toss open the doors on academic rigor and high quality, yet rather to ask the area to mirror and pause on why credit transfer plans are stringent, recognizing the obstacles they may pose for students. We identify the cases that stringent debt transfer policies protect trainee preparation and program communication. If that’s real, what data are made use of to verify that trainees are not well prepared if they don’t take courses in a linear sequence?

Estevan’s Success Story: Individualized Support

Meet Estevan, featured by Texas A&M College– Corpus Christi as a Transfer Pupil Success Tale. Estevan gained from a high degree of individualized support– including advising on training course selection and financial assistance preparation– that assisted him identify a clear path to move in his significant of option. Such tailored assistance aided Estevan make the dean and prosper’s checklist after transferring.

Accreditors and Learning Mobility

We are excited to share that we had the opportunity to ask that inquiry of the participants of the Middle States Payment on College (for which one of the authors, Heather Perfetti, serves as head of state). In loss of 2024, MSCHE, WASC Senior Institution Of Higher Learning Compensation, and the Southern Organization of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges partnered with the Beyond Transfer Policy Advisory Board and Sova to create and field the Study on Transfer and Learning Wheelchair to their institutional participants. The study sought to figure out members’ perspectives on pupil transfer and learning flexibility and to discern the role of accreditors in these processes with the institutional lens.

Applying Teach-Out Flexibility More Broadly

Teach-out policies are specifically the sort of thoughtful assistance that need to be in location to sustain trainees. But as we have actually explained, institutional closure is not the only reason trainees transfer, and it is not the only dilemma trainees face. So this leads us to ask, if institutions can be versatile when confronted with one sort of student transfer, can they be likewise flexible in other transfer circumstances too?

From MSCHE’s perspective, this study searching for seems like a call to stop, show and inspire us right into activity. MSCHE takes pride in its existing transfer policies, which are crafted to sustain trainees and the flexibility of their learning. MSCHE is additionally prepared to revisit its policies and certification tasks with the lens of how concepts related to teach-out throughout dilemmas, like closures, can notify move even more usually.

Added to that, we understand life is unpredictable and even a student’s best-laid plans can be hindered by one shed task, one ill family member or one unforeseen adjustment in financial assistance. When the uncertain happens, can organizations much better flex to satisfy learners where they are?

Via the Council of Regional Accrediting Commissions, in cooperation with WSCUC and SACSCOC, we’ll speak to our peer accreditation agencies also about key concerns for accreditors and how accreditors can and need to:

Estevan’s story is one of the numerous inspiring success stories regarding transfer trainees we hear every day, even when the odds seem piled versus them. We know that 80 percent of community university students across the country mean to complete a bachelor’s degree, yet only 31 percent transfer to a four-year institution within 6 years of entry. When they do well in moving, move pupils often outmatch their peers who stay and begin at the same establishment. As we have actually defined, institutional closure is not the only factor pupils transfer, and it is not the only crisis trainees face. In autumn of 2024, MSCHE, WASC Elder College and University Compensation, and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Compensation on Colleges partnered with the Beyond Transfer Policy Advisory Board and Sova to design and field the Survey on Transfer and Learning Movement to their institutional members.

We wish this post gives you food for thought. Via our partnership and lined up efforts such as the Understanding Assessment and Recognition for the Next Generation Commission (led by Sova and the American Organization of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers and on which MSCHE, WSCUC and SACSCOC all rest), we will certainly be wanting to sustain the field with extra thinking about solid concepts for student-centered credit scores examination and transfer. In the meanwhile, we’ll leave you with this inquiry: How do you flex for students?