Three IU researchers were co-authors on the report, “Transfer and Mobility: A National View of Student Movement in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2008 Cohort.” This is the ninth installment in the series of reports on student transfers which began in 2012, according to the press release.
The report found over one-third of the 3.6 million students who enrolled in college in the fall of 2008 transferred at least once within six years. Of these transfer students, almost half changed institutions more than once, according to the ?report.
The report focuses on student enrollment patterns rather than national transfer rates in hopes of helping policymakers.
“With a better understanding of student transfer and mobility, institutional policymakers will be amply equipped to advise their students on different enrollment pathways,” according to the report.
Specifically, researchers studied patterns across two-year and four-year schools, private and public schools, mobility across state lines and over multiple years, according to the report.
Based on these patterns, researchers found nearly a quarter of students who enroll at a community college transfer to a four-year institution within six years. However, only one in eight transfers with a certificate or associate’s degree, according to the report.
This could result in what the report calls “reverse transfer initiatives,” meaning credits from four-year schools could be transferred to two-year schools so students would be awarded a degree, according to the ?report.
Understanding these patterns of mobility and applying them to policy may change the way institutions measure success, co-author and project manager Phoebe Khasiala Wakhungu said.
“With more and more states adopting performance budgeting systems that reward institutions for their graduation rates, and with the federal government focusing more and more on retention and graduation rates, this report sheds light on one of the most important public policy issues in American postsecondary education today,” ?Wakhungu said.
