Indicator: Transfer (if applicable)

Definition

Postsecondary students transfer to a longer program (from certificate to associate’s degree, or from associate’s to bachelor’s degree).

Recommended Metric(s)

Percentage of students in a certificate or associate’s degree program who transfer to a longer degree program within 150 percent of the original program’s intended length. Other time frames, such as 100 percent and 200 percent of program length, are also useful to track.

View CEDS Connection

Percentage of students in a certificate or associate’s degree program who transfer to a longer degree program within 150 % of the original program’s intended length

CEDS Connections offer guidance, including data elements and step-by-step analysis recommendations, for how to calculate select metrics.

Type(s) of Data Needed

Administrative data

Why it matters

Transferring to a four-year college is a necessary step for community college students to earn bachelor’s degrees. Students who transfer after earning associate’s degrees are 12 percentage points more likely to graduate with bachelor’s degrees than students who transfer before earning an associate’s degree (53 versus 41 percent).1, 2 There is also evidence that students with a bachelor’s degree earn nearly 40 percent more annually than those with an associate’s degree only, and are also less likely to face unemployment.3 However, transfer rates tend to be lower for Black and Latino students,4, 5 as well as for students from low-income households, than their peers.6

What to know about measurement

Students may transfer to longer degree programs both within their current institutions and by enrolling in a different institution, so this indicator requires linking student data from multiple institutions. National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) enrollment records can be used to calculate transfers from two-year to four-year institutions, though the NSC does not report this information publicly at the institution level. (It does report aggregate analyses in its annual Tracking Transfer report series, and institutions that participate in their Student Tracker for Colleges and Universities or Postsecondary Data Partnership service can access data on transfer rates and transfer completions.) Detailed transfer rates for two-year institutions (whether public, private, or for-profit) currently are not publicly available. Though Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) reports overall transfer outs, it does not track where students subsequently enroll nor whether students who complete a certificate or associate’s degree subsequently enroll in a longer degree program. It is also important to measure the extent to which students’ credits are transferring between institutions, with credit loss negatively impacting affordability and completion.7

E-W Case Studies

College graduates stock photo
National Student Clearinghouse Postsecondary Data Partnership
The National Student Clearinghouse launched this partnership to equip participating postsecondary institutions with timely data and tools that can inform decision making.
View Case Study

Source frameworks

This indicator appeared in eight source frameworks reviewed for this report. Our proposed measure aligns with work by the Institute for Higher Education Policy.

References