A Methodology for Determining the Transferability Rate of Courses

Abstract

For transfer students, the transfer of credit between institutions creates a barrier to graduation as students’ time and money is ultimately wasted when courses do not successfully transfer as credit applicable toward degree requirements at the receiving institution. Understanding the extent to which courses at your institution transfer to other institutions is the first step to increase the transferability of courses and, ultimately, ease this barrier. We created a process for utilizing the enrollment data from the National Student Clearinghouse to identify a subset of institutions to which large numbers of our former students transferred in the past three years. Then, for these institutions, we recorded course transfer equivalency information from the Michigan Transfer Network website and several other sources. To determine the transferability rate of courses, a coding system was created to increase consistency in the identification of a course as transferable. The detailed methodology for this transferability analysis will be discussed. Finally, we will discuss the ways in which we use the transferability rate to better understand course characteristics in relation to transferability.