Transition Matters Community College to Bachelor's Degree

Due to changing demographics, issues of college affordability, and workforce expectations, there is an increasing demand for access to community colleges. At present, there are approximately 1,200 community colleges nationwide, serving over 11.5 million students – nearly half of all undergraduates. These institutions have multiple missions integral to their local communities, one of which includes helping students transition from a two-year college to a four-year college to earn a bachelor’s degree. These institutions are a primary access point to higher education for many Americans, particularly those who have been traditionally underrepresented, such as minority, first generation, nontraditional, and low-income students. As college costs increase, community colleges are becoming a more popular entry point for students of various economic backgrounds, and more students are turning to community college for the first two years of their education, with plans to transfer to attain a bachelor’s degree. However, data from a report by the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, Mortgaging Our Future: How Financial Barriers to College Undercut America’s Global Competitiveness (2006), reveals problems en route to a bachelor’s degree for college-qualified low- and moderate-income students who initially enroll at a community college with the intention of transferring to a four-year institution and attaining a bachelor’s degree. Specifically, the report shows that among the 1992 high school graduate cohort, only 20 percent of college-qualified low-income students actually attained a bachelor’s degree by 2000. While the number of higher income students in this same category who attained a bachelor’s degree is significantly higher, the pathway is not perfect for them either, indicating the need to strengthen this route. Furthermore, new enrollment data now available suggest that a major shift in college enrollment from four-year colleges to two-year colleges occurred among low- and moderate-income college-qualified high school graduates between 1992 and 2004. These shifts portend higher projected bachelor’s degree losses for the high school class of 2004 – as well as higher projected cumulative losses for the current decade. Recognizing the need to strengthen the community college pathway, the Advisory Committee has undertaken an initiative on community colleges. Through its research, the Committee has noted three critical transition points for students who start at a community college and intend to obtain a bachelor’s degree: enrollment, persistence, and transfer. Students encounter barriers at each stage that often prevent them from attaining a degree, barriers that fall into five categories: academic, social, informational, complexity, and financial. In this proceedings report, the Committee has identified and described multiple practices that reduce barriers, and, in so doing, enable enrollment, ensure persistence, and facilitate transfer.