Higher education officials are pushing to get more community college graduates into the state’s four-year universities.
Officials with the University of Texas System, Texas A&M University System and Texas Association of Community Colleges unveiled the Transfer 101 campaign this month to better explain the transition and to encourage students to move on to additional education.
Studies show that students who complete community college course work before going to four-year institutions tend to graduate at a higher rate than those who begin their college educations at four-year institutions. However, fewer than 20 percent of qualified community college students elect to transfer to universities, according to Martha Ellis, the UT System’s associate vice chancellor for community college partnerships.
“Students explain that there is a lack of user-friendly, jargon-free, available information for themselves and their families,” Ellis said. “For this reason, a public awareness campaign is critical to ensure more students are informed about resources that could help them make a transition from a community college to a university.”
By this fall, plans call for each Texas two-year college’s Web site to include the Transfer 101 logo as a link to information on how community college students can make the transition to a university. Also, higher education officials want to enhance relationships with the state’s 50 community college districts, develop transfer plans and a public awareness campaign on options for baccalaureate degree completion, according to the news release.
Kilgore College President Bill Holda said four-year public universities recognize that community colleges in recent years have attracted more cost-conscious students. Two years ago, Texas Tech University refocused some of its recruiting on transfer students, he said.
Some 80 percent of students who register at Kilgore College with the declared intent to transfer to a four-year university complete their baccalaureate, said Holda.
“More and more students are going to community colleges statewide,” he said. “As tuition has gone up at major public and private universities, community colleges have become a much greater option for many students.”
By JIMMY ISAAC
Filed under News