ACROSS THE COUNTRY, enrollments at community colleges are growing rapidly. According to 2004 data (the most recent) from the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES), almost 40 percent of all students enrolled in higher education institutions are enrolled at two-year institutions. There are many reasons for this growth, but two are most significant.
First, community colleges have evolved from their roots in meeting local training and retraining needs to today serving a more traditional college age population. Some community colleges are even adding residence halls to enable them to serve a broader geographic base.
Second, these institutions provide a cost-effective alternative for the first two years of a four-year education. This can be particularly attractive to students wishing to keep debt low. As a result, enrollments are growing in programs designed to be transferable. Other programs take students through all four years of school. The second largest institution in the country, Miami Dade College (formerly Miami Dade Community College) began offering Bachelor of Science degrees in 2003.
On average, the typical transfer generates more net tuition revenue than the average freshman.
Some four-year institutions are seeing the growth in community college enrollments as a threat, viewing two-year institutions as competitors. We would argue, however, that it would be far more productive for two- and four-year institutions to work as partners, ensuring that the transition from a two-year institution to a four-year institution is as seamless as possible for students.
FIRST-CLASS ENROLLMENT, SECOND-CLASS TREATMENT
Recruited actively and served well, transfers can become an important and particularly attractive enrollment stream at four-year institutions. Why? For one, they predominately take upper-division classes, which are more likely to be underenrolled than entry-level, general education courses. And on average, the typical transfer generates more net tuition revenue than the average freshman. This happens in part because transfers have access to more loan resources than freshmen. In addition, because transfers are typically considering fewer alternatives, they often are not as price sensitive as freshmen.
Transfers also often bring a focus, maturity, and different perspective to the classroom that can enrich discussion. In addition, those entering as upperclassmen frequently place less demand on campus housing. Finally, they have a proven track record of academic accomplishments at the postsecondary level.
Despite these advantages, some four year institutions of higher ed treat transfers as second-class citizens. For example, some IHEs will only provide evaluations of transfer credit after the student is admitted, and the turnaround time on these evaluations can often stretch into weeks or even months because of institutional policies requiring faculty review or because of other processing backlogs.
In addition, although most institutions carefully cultivate relationships with guidance counselors and even teachers at key feeder high schools, those same institutions may spend little or no time building bridges with community college counselors and faculty.
Transfers are also shut out of housing and courses at some higher ed institutions because they typically apply in late spring or early summer after housing assignments and preregistration for fall are complete. And frequently transfers are an afterthought when it comes to orientation programming, timely academic advisement, and registration for first-semester courses as well as availability of academic scholarships.
VALUE RESPECTED
In contrast, institutions aware of the value of transfers develop clear articulation agreements with key feeder two-year schools and communicate those agreements to prospective transfers via the web and other vehicles before they even apply. They offer special orientation, academic advisement, and registration sessions for transfers, reserve space in housing and courses, and have specific scholarship resources set aside.
At Iowa State University, for example, under the Admissions Partnership Program (www.admissions.iastate.edu/partnership), students receive mentoring and guidance from both ISU and the community college they attend from the time they are accepted into the program. They are guaranteed acceptance into the university's bachelor's program as long as all program requirements are met. They also have opportunities to live in ISU housing, have access to career and other resources, and receive student pricing for athletic and other events before they are actually enrolled at ISU. Early orientation and registration at ISU are also available to program participants.
