College Credit Mobility Can & Should be Improved to Expand Opportunities for Students, Witnesses Tell Congress

WASHINGTON , D.C. – College credit mobility is a significant challenge for students pursuing a higher education and policies could be improved to ease the portability of academic credits, witnesses today told a bipartisan hearing of the U.S. House Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness.  The hearing examined policies in place at the state and institutional level to ease college credit mobility, and explored what further options could be pursued at the federal level to ease the process for students while preserving institutional autonomy.

“As we enter the 21st Century, it is our duty and obligation to act to drive improvements to the current system to reflect today’s increasingly mobile student body,” said Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), chairman of the subcommittee.

With increasing numbers of non-traditional students pursuing higher education for the first time, or returning to school to complete their education, it has become more important than ever that college students are free to transfer from one institution to another without unfairly losing credit for quality courses they have completed, McKeon noted.  According to the U.S. Department of Education, more than half of all postsecondary education students attend more than one institution of higher education during their academic careers.

A bipartisan panel of witnesses agreed that while significant efforts are already underway to ease college credit mobility, improvements can be made to better prepare students to successfully transfer the academic credits they earn.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to address the subcommittee on whether transfer policy in higher education can be improved, and I am here to say that it can, it must, and it will,” said Dr. Philip Day, president of the National Articulation and Transfer Network.

“Nationally, almost half of the students enrolled in college begin their postsecondary education at the community college.  Of those who enter the community college, almost three-fourths (71%) intend to earn a bachelor’s degree, including students in vocational programs,” continued Day.  “Still the transfer rate hovers between 20 to 25 percent nationally, with minority students lagging as much as 10 to 20 percentage points below the transfer rate for white students.”

“While institutional and state systems for transfer of credit are largely successful, we know that the system can be improved,” said Jerome Sullivan, executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.  “There are inefficiencies for both students and for institutions.  Uncertainty and lack of transparency cause significant difficulties for all parties in the transfer process.”

Rep. McKeon joined Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Boehner (R-OH) in February to introduce the College Access and Opportunity Act (H.R. 609), a bill that aims to ease college credit mobility for students by asking colleges and universities to: establish transfer of credit policies; make those policies available to the public; and to abide by their own, individual policies.  In addition, the bill would ensure credits are not unfairly and arbitrarily denied based on the accreditor of a college or university where the credits being transferred were earned, so long as the accreditor is recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education.

While these types of efforts at the federal level are important, McKeon noted, it is also essential to examine the voluntary steps being taken at the state and institutional level to address the challenges of college credit mobility.

In that regard, the hearing also focused on efforts already underway in some states to ease the portability of college credits.  In the state of Ohio , the hearing revealed, significant strides have been made to establish articulation agreements and implement policies that will allow students greater flexibility to transfer among institutions in the state without unfairly losing the credit they have earned.

“ Ohio has made significant strides forward in ensuring that students have easy access to all the resources of the state’s comprehensive system of public colleges and universities.  Like many other states, we have grappled with very difficult conceptual, educational and logistical issues in developing a new policy for statewide transfer.  Ohio ’s model for transfer and articulation might serve as a useful resource to other states challenged by similar issues,” said Dr. Nancy L. Zimpher, president of the University of Cincinnati in Ohio .  “Students are very mobile.  Consequently, the opportunity to easily transfer courses among campuses is a foundation for improving student access and success in college.”

The state of Florida has also taken an innovative approach the college credit mobility with the establishment of guaranteed transferability of “core” education courses and common prerequisite course requirements, as well as the creation of a common course numbering system that is intended to give students greater predictability in how their credits may be transferred among institutions.

“I applaud your efforts to strengthen policies on a national level to facilitate student movement; to put policies in place that do not require a student or taxpayer to pay twice for the same instruction; and to do it in a way that does not jeopardize the quality and integrity of instructional programs,” said Dr. Theresa A. Klebacha, director of strategic initiatives for the Florida Department of Education.

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