8 Identifying factors that affect the transition of transfer students to a four-year university through the use of focus groups.

Abstract

Students who transfer from a community college to a 4-year university face different transition barriers compared to those who come directly from high school, which has led to a decrease in retention rate of over 10% (from 89.9% to 78.3% - 2016). Roughly 20% of students in the Department of Animal Science at Iowa State University (ISU) are transfers, therefore this is an issue of great concern. The objective of this study is to identify issues specific to transfer students and determine if additional resources are needed to address these issues. The study consists of two parts: 1) identification of barrier themes through focus group discussion, and 2) development of a survey instrument that can be used across multiple disciplines. Focus group data is reported here. A structured discussion was conducted in six different focus groups (n=58) that consisted of 8–10 transfer students. Focus groups were formed through the use of transfer student peer mentor groups that were assigned based on student interests and career goals. The discussion focused on three main categories of issues commonly found in literature: psychological, academic and environmental barriers. Qualitative analysis of the focus group discussions revealed common themes of struggles that our students face within these categories. It was found that transfer students at ISU commonly struggle with social integration, lack of knowledge on transfer credits and having larger class sizes, thus a lack of personal relationships with professors. Notably, a majority of students reported negative feedback on the requirement of an orientation class that consisted of predominantly freshman. Collection of this data has led to the addition of a transfer-specific orientation course that will address the challenges that were identified. In addition, the themes that were identified are being used to develop a survey instrument that can be used across multiple disciplines.