Exploring Credit Mobility and Major-Specific Pathways: A Policy Analysis and Student Perspective on Community College to University Transfer

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Objective: Problems with credit mobility, or the transfer of credits from a sending to a receiving institution, may be one reason why community college transfer students have low rates of bachelor’s degree completion. This study investigates different policy approaches to credit mobility and how college staff and students experience transfer at the campus level. Method: The study utilizes data from policy documents and legislative statutes, phone interviews with higher education system officials, and college staff across 10 states, and interview data with students and staff collected during site visits to 2- and 4-year colleges in Tennessee, Texas, and Washington. Results: We categorized credit mobility policies across a continuum, from system-wide transfer initiatives to local-level institution-to-institution approaches. We refer to these different policy systems as 2 + 2, credit equivalency, and institution-driven. Across the systems, policies may not be working as intended because many transfer students do not select a major and destination institution early enough in their community college career to avoid credit loss. Moreover, institutions may lack capacity to provide personalized support to students interested in transfer early in their career. Contributions: We provide a new framework to understand different policy approaches to ensuring transfer students’ credits transfer and apply to their major, and offer research, policy, and practice considerations to improve credit mobility across different policy systems.