Articulation between two-year colleges and universities provides a critical opportunity for potential students. Most institutions declare their support of articulation; however, the visibility of this support to potential students is inconsistent at best. Articulation agreements that are visible and easily understood by potential students serve as…

A growing number of postsecondary students transfer from a two-year to a four-year institution. The joint admissions program between Owensboro Community and Technical College (OCTC) and Western Kentucky University-Owensboro (WKU-O) is a unique example of such a transfer relationship. Research is needed to understand the nature of the joint…

With more and more students making community college the starting point of their postsecondary education, there is potential in the pipeline; tapping into it promises great rewards. Transfer has long been integral to the community college mission, but navigating the path to the four-year degree continues to be a challenge. Transfer students have…

Kristine H. Strickland reviews the variety of barriers on community college students' path to transfer and completion. Though community college transfer students can be as successful as transfer students from four-year institutions, Strickland argues that both two-year and four-year institutions need to do more to prepare students for transfer and…

Community college students start college with goals including transferring to earn a bachelor's degree and gaining the skills and credentials that have immediate labor market value. These goals are not mutually exclusive. Students deserve access to clear pathways, whether they enroll in short-term education and training programs or in college…

Adult community college students, age 25 and older, have been understudied in the extensive college transfer literature, which otherwise focuses on traditional-age college students age 18 through 24, or on students of unspecified age. According to the theoretical framework of academic momentum articulated by Clifford Adelman (2006), enrollment…

Background/Context: Transfer from community colleges to selective four-year institutions is an issue that assumes great importance for the democratization of postsecondary education. Yet research on what influences transfer to selective four-year institutions is surprisingly sparse. Transfer research typically lumps four-year schools receiving…

Since the end of apartheid, South African leaders have been working to transform all aspects of the racialized society into a nonracialized, nonsexist democratic state, including postsecondary education. This chapter examines the changing South African collegiate context focusing on access, persistence, affordability, accreditation, transfer, and…

James Madison University (JMU) and Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) teamed up in April 2014 to build a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between their respective four-year and two-year honors programs. This MOU is the basis for the continued work between these two institutions to collaborate and find research to assist other interested…

Beginning at a local two-year college and then transferring to a four-year institution has been one of the most affordable ways for students to earn a bachelor's degree. Yet transfer pathways from two- to four-year institutions are often complex and confusing, and too many students who begin at a community college and aspire to earn a bachelor's…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore not only the academic measures such as grade point average of success of college-to-university transfer programs (Pathway Programs), but also the social-cultural facilitators and barriers throughout the students' Pathway experience. Design/methodology/approach: The experience of students and…

The introduction of SB-1440 in 2010, also known as the Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act, appeared to be an opportunity for California educators and policy makers to address the achievement gap among community college students with the introduction of the streamlined associate degree for transfer (ADT) (Padilla, 2010). If implemented…

The most important components of an academic institution are the educational programs it offers. California Education Code and accreditation standards emphasize the essential nature of a college's educational programs to that college's existence, and often a college's programs reflect the individual personality of the college and the uniqueness of…

Most of the students who set out to earn degrees in community colleges never do. Interventions that simplify the complex organizational structures of these schools are promising solutions to this problem. This article is the first to provide rigorous evidence of the effects of structured transfer programs, one such intervention. Leveraging the…

Washington's community and technical colleges, private non-profit baccalaureate, and public baccalaureate colleges and universities have a proud history of partnering to serve students. Nowhere is this cooperation more evident than in the smooth transfer process from community and technical colleges into four-year colleges and universities. This…