RD189 - Transfers from Community Colleges at Virginia Public Four-Year Institutions - December 2013


Executive Summary:
As required by Code of Virginia § 23-9.2:3.02 C, this annual report provides cohort-based information about transfers from Virginia community colleges to public four-year institutions for the five year period concluding with the 2009-10 academic year. SCHEV has been producing similar reports since 2008, and the 2009 through 2012 reports are available on the SCHEV website ( http://www.schev.edu/reports/reportsindex.asp). Since the mid-2000’s a number of changes have occurred in Virginia’s higher education law and policy, and in the data resources available to assess the effectiveness of the commonwealth’s higher education system. Instances of such changes include the passing of the Restructured Higher Education Financial and Administrative Operations Act of 2005 (“Restructuring”) and the Virginia Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2011 (“TJ 21”), the development of Guaranteed Admissions Agreements between the community college system and public four-year institutions, the creation of a longitudinal data system linking K-12, higher education, and post-graduation employment, and the provision of a richer set of data on the SCHEV website than ever before. Accordingly, this year’s report will also make reference to outcomes data available on the SCHEV website; comparable transfer outcomes reported from 2008-12; and institutions’ current six-year enrollment plans as they relate to transfer capacity. The purpose of this additional context is to enable a look back at where Virginia has been with regard to transfer outcomes, where it is now, and where it is likely to be going in the near to intermediate future. There is strong interest among legislators, policy makers, and the general public in effective and affordable paths to bachelor’s degree completion, and the mandate to prepare this report annually is one indication of that interest. The technical information presented here represents just one aspect of a complex set of interconnected factors that influence the fortunes of transfer students. These include trends in tuition and fees, admissions competitiveness of institutions, and efforts within K-12 and higher education to improve student outcomes, particularly the readiness of students to perform well at each successive stage of education. Within this context, transfer is not a simple linear phenomenon; it is more like a subset of pieces in a very large and constantly shifting puzzle.