Columbia, SC—Today, the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education (CHE) joins three other states—North Carolina, Colorado, and Washington—in a two-day kickoff convening for a course credit transfer initiative, Transfer Policy Standards for Equitable Attainment (Transfers), that could improve affordability and degree attainment for South Carolina’s historically underserved students. As a partnership between the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) and Gardner Institute, the initiative will help participant states develop system-wide credit transfer standards.

Transfers has been made possible by funding from the ECMC Foundation and is a feature of its broader Catalyzing Transfer Initiative, which has provided $4.5 million to various projects nationwide that address broken postsecondary student transfer pipelines. According to the foundation, nationally, “while 80 [percent] of the 5.3 million students enrolled in public-two year institutions aim to earn a bachelor’s degree, only 29 [percent] transfer within six years and even fewer, 17 [percent], complete a bachelors…” The foundation notes that “discrepancy between aspirations and outcomes is even wider for students of color, students from low-income backgrounds and first-generation students.”

In South Carolina, transfers of undergraduate students between in-state colleges and universities have averaged about 10,100 each Fall during the 2010-through-2019 time period. In Fall 2019, over half those transfers (58 percent) originated at technical colleges; and of those, nearly 74 percent migrated to a four-year institution. This postsecondary pathway represents critical cost savings and otherwise out-of-reach educational opportunities to thousands of students annually, especially those from low-income and underserved backgrounds. The Transfers initiative is an opportunity to improve and standardize credit transfers system-wide, which could, in effect, increase the number of students attaining higher education levels.

In addition to opening more degree completion pathways for more students, improved credit transfers could boost attainment, enhancing affordability for students by lowering potential repeat courses and decreasing overall time to degree attainment. Dr. Eric Skipper, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of South Carolina Beaufort (USCB), said, “I believe that transferability should be facilitated to the extent possible, to improve retention, progression, and graduation across all institutional types.”

Increasing South Carolinians’ educational attainment is a priority of the CHE’s Public Agenda, which aims for 60 percent of the state’s working-age population to hold by 2030 a high-quality, workforce-relevant credential. Dr. Rusty Monhollon, CHE president and executive director, notes the Transfers initiative supports the Public Agenda’s mission: “A renewed, comprehensive transfer policy based on improving achievement gaps measured by race/ethnicity, low income, and related criteria has been endorsed repeatedly as essential to our postsecondary success.”

The initiative’s two-day kickoff convening will conclude tomorrow, May 21. As part of the discussions, participant states will share a profile of current credit transfer policies, learn more about the initiative, and develop their next steps for the self-study and policy standards.