Dive Brief:
- Massachusetts has a new incentive for students to persist through a community college program and transfer to a state 4-year school in the Commonwealth Commitment.
- Community college students who stay on track to complete an associate degree in two-and-a-half years and then transfer to receive their bachelor’s degree in two more years, maintaining full-time, continuous enrollment and a 3.0 GPA, get their tuition and fees frozen and a 10% rebate on these costs at the end of each semester.
- Inside Higher Ed reports a big push in the program will be encouraging the state’s part-time community college students to commit to going to school full-time, and combining the program with MassTransfer Pathways could significantly improve on-time completion.
Dive Insight:
California is another state that has worked through the legislature to support transfer initiatives. In 2010, legislators approved transfer reform legislation that created the Associate Degree for Transfer, which comes with guaranteed admission to a CSU school with junior standing. A progress report recently said the initiative has helped some students, but not enough.
Reverse transfer initiatives are helping former community college students studying at four-year institutions get their associate degrees after leaving the two-year colleges. Information sharing lets the student and both institutions know he or she has completed the remaining credits necessary for an associate degree after transferring to the four-year college. Students who earn an associate on the way to a bachelor’s are more likely to persist and they are more marketable to employers if they do not.