Creating a Higher Education Based Transfer Services Center: Establishing Processes to Promote Access to Higher Education and Degree Attainment for Transfer Students

Establishing an efficient transfer process for college students has become a major focus at many postsecondary institutions. High schools are also getting involved, focusing on increasing connections between their courses and programs and those of area colleges and universities. Legislators, too, are beginning to place a greater emphasis on the transfer process and transfer rates from students transferring from community college. Colleges and universities that do not have a designated department or group of employees who focus on transfer students may struggle to create, implement and maintain processes that encourage transfer to or from the institution. Transfer Centers are designed to promote access to higher education and degree attainment by facilitating successful transfers of college and articulated credits.

Creating a Transfer Center can be a time-consuming and complicated process. As a result of this dissertation, a guide was created that can be used by institutions interested in creating a service based transfer center. The guide originated fromt he need to develop a system that streamlines transfer processes for students and helps to establish a more efficient model for recruiting transfer students, evaluating transfer credits and awarding transfer credits in a meaningful way that helps transfer students to reduce their time to degree and student debt.

The intent of this guide is to demonstrate the value of an established transfer services center and some of the benefits and challenges that result from such a center. This guide intends to provide a clear foundation for establishing a transfer center.

In the past, the transfer process has been a complex process that often led to frustration, loss of credits and additional cost for students. Implementing a transfer center allows teh postsecondary institution to create a system that streamlines processes and provides answers to what often are complicated transfer questions.