Transfer enrollment rose for the second straight year, up 4.4% this fall and nearing pre-pandemic levels. That rebound is encouraging, but it masks a deeper challenge: Transfer students continue to graduate at lower rates than their peers, held back by a system that makes it far too difficult to carry credits across institutions.
Every year, a startling number of students attempt to transfer from one college to another, only to have their credits rejected or be required to retake courses. This inconsistent approach to credit transfer costs learners time, money and momentum.
Many leave without a degree, while institutions lose potential completers and employers miss out on skilled workers. Students who do make it across the finish line are among the most resilient and resourceful learners in higher education.
Leaving students stranded
In past decades, differences in curricula, course sequencing and academic standards created genuine complexities for institutions, and colleges were stymied by the limited number of tools at their disposal.
But today, advances in technology—from artificial intelligence to digital transcript systems— make it possible to plan college pathways with far greater precision, transparency, and consistency. Institutions have an opportunity to reframe transfer not as an administrative hurdle, but as a vital pathway for enabling more students to realize the full promise of higher education.
Today, that promise has gone unfulfilled for far too many. More than 37 million Americans have some college but no degree. Many of them started at community colleges with the clear intention of earning a four-year degree.
About 80% of first-time community college students plan on transferring and completing a bachelor’s degree, but only 16% do so within six years. Some studies show students lose, on average, 43% of their credits when transferring.
Meanwhile, research suggests the challenge is even more complicated, with many credits being accepted but still not allowed to count toward a degree. In any case, the result is a quiet, under-addressed shame in higher education. Students are left stranded, often burdened with debt but with little to no payoff for their investment.
Simpler, smarter and more reliable
For years, financial and structural incentives worked against transfer. With colleges now facing enrollment declines and businesses worrying about filling critical workforce roles, the challenge is finally getting the serious attention it deserves.
The pool of traditional, full-time college-aged students is shrinking. At the same time, young learners who still enroll are increasingly entering higher education through dual enrollment while still in high school, creating additional wrinkles around the importance of credit transfer.
As micro-credentials, online learning and workplace upskilling rise, institutions will also need to ensure that transfer pathways are ready to serve traditional students and returning adults. That requires harnessing technology in comprehensive ways that make transfer simpler, smarter and more reliable.
The good news is that green shoots of transfer innovation now seem widespread. Consider the case of the Ohio State University, which is building a new course planning system that integrates degree audits with transfer-credit reports, giving students and advisors a single, transparent view of how prior coursework applies toward a degree.
With this kind of transfer-aware reporting, the university can now identify students carrying significant transfer credits early on and ensure those credits help them progress rather than go to waste. Students and advisors can easily see which requirements are fulfilled, which remain, how credits apply under institutional policies and even how progress would look in an alternate major or schedule.
Other players, including state governments and higher education systems, are also making headway with improved articulation agreements, free tuition programs and other changes that can reduce arbitrary decision-making and ease transfer for students.
A true leap forward
In Illinois, the University of Illinois System launched a $1 million pilot to help students at City Colleges of Chicago overcome barriers to transfer. Starting with 240 students, the program will provide academic, financial, and career support to boost bachelor’s completion and connect more Illinois students to high-demand careers.
On the West Coast, a coalition of community colleges and public universities known as California Reconnect is helping students who once stopped out reclaim the credits they’ve already earned, enroll in higher education and finally cross the finish line to a degree or credential.
Nationally, the Credit Mobility Initiative from the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers is working to make transfer less of a gamble by mapping how courses and competencies align across institutions, developing tools to ensure credits apply consistently, and creating policies that strip out the guesswork for students on the move.
These efforts are commendable—and making an impact not a moment too soon. With tens of thousands of students hoping—but struggling—to transfer and graduate every year, credit mobility offers one of the clearest frontiers for a true leap forward in how education serves learners.
Advances in transcript technology and digital records are now giving students and institutions a clear picture of how past, present, and future coursework fits into various academic pathways, allowing all students—whether they are transfers or non-transfers—to maximize their credits. What once required lengthy manual review can now be assessed near-instantly.
