SPOTLIGHT | Boosting Transfer Rates Across States

Change Management

Oct 1

Client: ECMC Foundation, part of the Catalyzing Transfer Initiative (CTI)| Partner: Institute of Higher Education Policy (IHEP) | Project: TransferBOOST| Partnership Length: 2020 - Present| HCM Service Area Spotlight: Support Change Management Strategies| Portfolio Category: Post-secondary

For every 100 students who enroll in community colleges, 31 students transfer to a four-year institution. Of those, only 14 complete a bachelor’s degree within six years. Too many students are derailed from their higher education goals by unexpected, unaffordable, and untenable—yet solvable—challenges along their transfer journey.

OVERVIEW

In 2021, recognizing that the need for clear supports and equitable pathways to complete a degree across multiple institutions has never been more urgent, we partnered with the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) to ensure transfer policy and practice meet the needs of today’s students, to elevate transfer commitments, and to reach students with simple, clear messaging about affordable transfer pathways. The health and economic crises continue to disproportionately impact Black, Latinx and/or Hispanic, Indigenous, and underserved AAPI students and students from low-income backgrounds – the very students who are most likely to start their higher education pathway at a community college.

TransferBOOST is part of ECMC Foundation’s Catalyzing Transfer Initiative (CTI), a national shared learning and collaboration effort between high-impact non-profit organizations that aims to build, manage, and activate new ways to increase successful transfer of postsecondary credits and timely bachelor’s degree completion among marginalized racial and ethnic groups.

OUR WORK + IMPACT

TransferBOOST is a student-centered, data-informed, and equity-driven partnership between community colleges and four-year institutions that respect students’ investment of time and money into higher education. TransferBOOST supported 24 institutions to improve student transfer outcomes and worked closely with leads from Maricopa Community College District, Northern Arizona University, the Illinois Board of Higher Education, the Illinois Community College Board, and the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia.

TransferBOOST provides students with a four-part transfer affordability approach:

Ensure All Credits Transfer and Apply Seamlessly: 43% of credits on average are lost nationwide through the transfer process. 18 Today’s students strive to make good use of their time and money, so the TransferBOOST initiative worked to ensure that credits transfer and apply seamlessly from a two-year to four-year institution to support students on their path to a bachelor’s degree.
Provide Clear Costs: Recognizing the costs across the entire pathway, including non-tuition costs and the role of scholarships and financial aid, can help students address financial barriers, the TransferBOOST initiative sought to provide students with information on clear costs and the role of scholarships and financial aid.
Improve Timely Completion: Only 15% of entering community college students complete a Bachelor’s degree within six years. Institutions participating in the TransferBOOST initiative worked to streamline their time-to-degree as well as offer wraparound student supports to ensure students stay on their pathway and complete both the associate’s and bachelor’s degrees in a timely manner.
Provide Clear Communication to Students: Research demonstrates that clear information about a transfer pathway and its associated costs can help students complete their credential. To support understanding the benefits of transfer, institutions developed clear, consistent, and direct messaging designed to connect with students and ensure both awareness of and participation in a degree pathway.

A signature feature of the TransferBOOST initiative is a focus on strategic finance and college affordability. The IHEP and HCM teams joined forces with rpk GROUP to offer technical assistance to TransferBOOST institutions and state partners. Together we sought to collaborate on transfer pipelines, engage new institutional actors in transfer efforts, understand the return on investment of transfer and improve affordability for transfer students.

HCM and IHEP also partnered with Kinetic Seeds to craft student-facing messaging to describe the benefits of transfer to key stakeholders and improve communication about transfer opportunities to faculty and staff.

HCM and other partners in transfer initiatives continue to build common ground and shared will for accelerated change through the Inside Higher Ed weekly blog series, Beyond Transfer.