Transfer Student Success Research Articles

Student engagement, school involvement, and transfer student success

Student engagement, school involvement, and transfer student success

Playing it SMART: increasing transfer student and URM undergraduate student success through undergraduate research combined with group support

Increasing retention rates in STEM disciplines has been a primary goal among universities in recent years. Special attention has been given to increase STEM retention among underrepresented populations in those fields. However, one group of students that remains understudied but faces specific challenges is the transfer (TR) student population. TR students, and especially those who transfer from community colleges (CC-TR) in the US, often face academic and mental hurdles, loss of a sense of academic belonging, and adjustment challenges, sometime described as the “transfer shock.” Undergraduate research, an experience that has been shown to promote student success, is often not pursued by STEM TR students due to a heavy load in their new 4-year university. We hypothesized that combining summer undergraduate research in STEM labs with intense group activities that focused on group support, development of research-related skills, and promotion of a sense of belonging, would increase rates of research participation after the summer among transfer students. Moreover, we hypothesized that such an intervention would promote student retention and academic success. Our research demonstrates that this intervention, through a summer program in an R1 university, served as a validating experience that increased participation in STEM research after the program, provided the students with academic skills, and improved graduation and STEM retention of TR and URM students. We believe that this intervention may serve as a model to promote student success among transfer and URM students.

Mentorship for Transfer Student Success in STEM Research: Mentor Approaches and Reflections.

Mentorship has been widely recognized as an effective means to promote student learning and engagement in undergraduate research experiences. However, little work exists for understanding different mentors' perceived approaches to mentorship, including mentorship of students from backgrounds and educational trajectories not well represented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Transfer students, in particular, face unique trajectories in their pursuit of research opportunities, yet few studies investigate how mentors describe their approaches to supporting these students. Using semistructured interviews, this study examines how mentors approach mentoring students from diverse backgrounds as research trainees, with an emphasis on transfer students. First, using phenomenography as an analytical approach, we identified four categories describing variations in how mentors reflected upon or accounted for the transfer student identity in their approaches. We find that research mentors vary in their understanding and exposure to the transfer student identity and may have preconceived notions of the transfer student experience. Second, we present vignettes to illustrate how mentors' approaches to the transfer student identity may relate or diverge from their general approaches to mentoring students from different backgrounds and identities. The emerging findings have implications for developing effective mentorship strategies and training mentors to support transfer students.

How Social and Relational Identities Shape Community College Transfer Students’ College Pathways

Given inequities in transfer student success, emerging research about transfer students has focused on students’ familial relationships and identities including race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. This qualitative study uses the reconceptualized model of multiple dimensions of identity to explore how social and relational identities influence the college transfer pathways of both pre- and post-transfer students in North Carolina. Findings detail how students’ identities and contextual influences shaped educational decisions and can be leveraged as strengths.

Challenges for Successful Transfer From Community to Bachelor’s Colleges: Views of Staff and Faculty With Transfer Responsibilities

Staff and faculty have influential roles in the success of students transferring from associate’s- to bachelor’s-degree programs (vertical transfer students). Our survey compared the reported views on transfer of 607 staff and faculty with transfer responsibilities in associate’s or bachelor’s programs at 19 City University of New York colleges. The findings included: (1) Staff reported feeling more confident in their responsibilities than did faculty. (2) Participants working with associate’s-degree students were more likely to report their colleges had sufficient transfer-service resources. (3) Associate’s-degree faculty were the least likely participant group to respond that the biggest barrier to the transfer process was GPA decline (transfer shock), and the most likely that it was credit transfer, whereas for bachelor’s-degree faculty, it was the reverse. These findings can inform policy and practice. For example, to work together towards a common goal of transfer student success and higher education equity, faculty may need more support in performing transfer-related duties and bridging their differing views across college sectors.

Achievement emotions predict transfer student academic success

Transfer students comprise half of all undergraduate students, yet their educational experiences may differ in meaningful ways from those of traditional students. Importantly, the transfer student population is diverse and not monolithic. Achievement emotions, which occur in an iterative pattern with past experiences informing current and future emotions, are particularly understudied within the transfer population. This survey study (N = 721) examines how diverse transfer students’ enjoyment and anxiety achievement emotions relate to GPA and term-to-term persistence. Results of the study showed that both anxiety and enjoyment emotions predicted term GPA and persistence for transfer students. However, when controlling for anxiety emotions, enjoyment emotions were no longer a significant predictor. These relations differed across demographic groups. Achievement emotions are an integral part of transfer students’ experiences in higher education, creating opportunities for institutions to improve their students’ educational outcomes.

Assessing the Role of Spatial Inequality in Transfer Student Success

Objective: Vertical community college transfer has become an essential pathway for many students who hope to attain bachelor’s degrees. Prior literature indicates that institutional supports, like transfer articulation agreements and transfer advising, have a positive influence on transfer success. Yet, spatial inequality theory indicates that these resources may be distributed unevenly over geographic context. The purpose of this paper is to understand the relationship between spatial context and transfer student success. Methods: Using data from the University of North Carolina System, we estimate a series of regression models, to determine the relationship between county-level measures of rurality, economic distress, and access to broadband internet and the number of credits transferred from the community college to the 4-year institution, excess credits at graduation, and number of major changes at 4-year colleges. Results: The results of our analyses indicate that that the spatial context in which colleges are situated has a relationship to transfer student success. In particular, students transferring from counties that are more rural and economically distressed and have less access to broadband internet may experience worse transfer outcomes. Conclusions: The results of our study indicate that spatial inequality is complex and can be defined in many ways, which has implications for those who use geographic boundaries to identify areas for inquiry or intervention. Additionally, this study highlights the importance of considering variation in resources across spatial context when addressing educational inequality. Further study is necessary to understand the mechanisms driving our results, as well as other ways to measure spatial inequality.

Exploring language needs of college transfer students with learning analytics: towards a more equitable experience

College transfer students are those who follow a different trajectory in their higher education journeys than traditional students, completing a sub-degree before pursuing a bachelor’s degree at a university. While the possibility of transferring makes higher education accessible to these students, previous studies have found that they face various challenges, from issues with course load to language challenges. This study aims to examine (1) the critical factors contributing to the success of transfer students in a language course; and (2) how transfer students perform better or worse than those who enter university directly. This study conducted learning analytics with 700 college transfer students in Hong Kong, retrieving their demographic and learning data from the learning management system and the university academic registry. The results suggest that English exam scores, current semester GPA, graduating GPA at community college and current course load are important predictors of transfer students’ success in language courses. This study also finds that transfer students have lower levels of language proficiency than direct entrants. It concludes with specific recommendations to make higher education more accessible to transfer students and suggestions on how to use learning analytics to track students with different trajectories.

How Can Universities Support STEM Transfer Students? A Framework for Strategic Planning and Action

In Short Vertical transfer from community college to a university offers a promising, although unrealized, pathway to diversify STEM disciplines. Studying how successful transfer-­receiving universities support STEM transfer students can offer insights into the institutional practices that promote transfer student retention and success. Using institutional data is crucial to identify vulnerable populations within the STEM transfer population and to design necessary changes in practice or policy, especially at the department level. Providing discipline-specific multidimensional support throughout STEM transfer students’ undergraduate careers can improve transfer rates and retention and ease students’ transition to the univer­sity. Although universities have developed promising practices and programs, support for STEM transfer students is not systematically available and should be more targeted, intentional, and comprehensive throughout the transfer and adjustment process.

Thriving or Simply Surviving? A Qualitative Exploration of STEM Community College Students' Transition to a Four-Year University.

Community colleges expand access to higher education and play a key role in efforts to increase and diversify the future science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce. While community colleges increase access to higher education and millions of students attend them for some portion of their education, the experiences of transfer students remain relatively understudied. Transferring during an academic journey can compound the barriers that students already face when pursuing a STEM degree. This study uses Schlossberg's model for analyzing human adaptation to transition to understand how STEM community college transfer students navigate and adapt to the 4-year university. Five semistructured focus groups were conducted with STEM community college transfer students attending an urban university. Analysis of the focus groups resulted in a new model: the amended model of adaptation to transfer transition, or AMATT, which illustrates various factors that played a role in STEM community college transfer students' adaptation a university. Analyses illumined two broad pathways that students tend to diverge into during their transitions-thriving or simply surviving. This work provides a framework for understanding factors influencing the transfer process and ideally will inform institutions and students as they consider maximal transfer student success.

Institutional Partnerships for Transfer Student Success: An Examination of Catalysts and Barriers to Collaboration

Institutional Partnerships for Transfer Student Success: An Examination of Catalysts and Barriers to Collaboration

Institutional Partnerships for Transfer Student Success: An Examination of Catalysts and Barriers to Collaboration

Objective: Strong institutional partnerships are critical to the transfer process for students because they can help ease navigation from one college to the next. This research seeks to better understand the nature of high-performing transfer partnerships, and the factors that can either promote or hinder their development. Methods: Drawing upon qualitative data from a larger mixed methods study, we visited seven institutional pairs of community college (sending) and baccalaureate-granting (receiving) institutions and interviewed 170 administrators, staff, and faculty. Data were analyzed using perspectives on educational collaborations and the forces that can impact organizational change efforts. Results: Our findings highlight factors that influence the development, growth, or continuation of transfer partnerships. We propose a framework that can be used to analyze transfer partnerships based on institutional culture, practices, and policies. Contributions: This research extends the work on transfer partnerships by providing a comprehensive picture of the organizational forces that impact their change over time. We also offer suggestions for how these findings can be used to develop or enhance transfer partnerships that can move institutions toward more equitable student outcomes.

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Effect of Online Learning on Transfer Student Success

Abstract Introduction: Online learning increased rapidly during the 2020 school year due to COVID-19. While online learning was perhaps the only realistic response to the health crisis, students differ in terms of their success with online learning. One particular group which may be vulnerable to problems with online learning is transfer students. Transfer students may be coming from smaller, in-person classes and are now put into fully online environments. This paper studies the performance of transfer students in online classes versus in-person classes. Methods: This study compares the success of transfer students for an in-person semester to an online semester. A simple statistical test was performed to compare results for transfer students to control students. Results: Transfer students appear to be performing worse than control students in the fully online learning environment. Discussion: There may be a variety of reasons for the poorer performance of transfer students. They may be switching from smaller, in-person learning environments to more impersonal online environments. Limitations: Pre-existing differences in individual students could not be controlled for. Conclusion: These results suggest that transfer students may not be adapting to fully online learning as well as control students. Further research is needed to clarify this.

Undergraduate Research Communities for Transfer Students

Transfer students face many challenges integrating into a 4-year college that affect their retention and success, yet very little research has documented how to create wraparound programming to support them. There remains a need to establish retention models that are adaptable and can serve a variety of students and institutions. The Learning Environment and Academic Research Network (LEARN) Consortium, a partnership of Florida Atlantic University, University of Central Florida, and Western Carolina University whose focus is on engagement in undergraduate research, addressed this need by developing and testing T-LEARN, a new model for a sustainable science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) retention program specifically for transfer students who have transitioned to a university setting after receiving their associate’s degree at a community college. The new model was developed by adapting a successful retention model for 1st-year students at the University of Central Florida centered around three main pillars: (1) academics/research, (2) mentoring, and (3) community building. In this paper, we describe the development of the T-LEARN model, outline the adaptations made to accommodate the specific needs of transfer students, and present 3 years of implementation data we analyzed to determine what factor(s) most impact transfer student retention and success. Our findings indicate that T-LEARN students’ involvement in research during their 1st year was the most significant factor within the T-LEARN program that contributed to their academic success. Additionally, the majority of these students had continued to do research with the same LEARN program faculty mentor 1 year after the program ended.

Pathway patterns mobility study of first time vs. transfer students in computer science and information technology programs at a public university

PurposePostsecondary institutions use metrics such as student retention and college completion rates to measure student success. Multiple factors affect the success of first time in college (FTIC) and transfer students. Transfer student success rates are significantly low, with most transfer students nationwide failing to complete their degrees in four-year institutions. The purpose of this study is to better understand the degree progression patterns of both student types in two undergraduate science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs: computer science (CS) and information technology (IT). Recommendations concerning academic advising are discussed to improve transfer student success.Design/methodology/approachThis study describes how transfer student success can be improved by thoroughly analyzing their degree progression patterns. This study uses institutional data from a public university in the United States. Specifically, this study utilizes the data of FTIC and transfer students enrolled in CS and IT programs at the targeted university to understand their degree progression patterns and analyzes the program curricula using network science curricular analytics method to determine what courses in the curriculum require more assistance to retain students.FindingsThe major findings of this study are: (1) students’ degree mobility patterns within an institution differ significantly between transfer and FTIC students; (2) some similarities exist between the CS and IT programs in terms of transfer students' degree mobility patterns; (3) transfer students' performance in basic and intermediate level core courses contribute to differences in transfer students' mobility patterns.Originality/valueThis study introduces the concept of “mobility patterns” and examines student degree mobility patterns of both FTIC and transfer students in a large public university to improve the advising process for transfer students regarding courses and identifying secondary majors.

Comparison of workload and academic performances of transfer and native students in an Asian educational context

ABSTRACT Post-secondary admission and community college (CC) transfer are two common routes of entry to baccalaureate study. Previous studies comparing the academic performances of native and transfer students have generated inconsistent findings and, furthermore, they were largely conducted in Western educational contexts. This study compared the workloads, grade point averages (GPA) and attrition rates of native and transfer students in an Asian educational context. Various measures related to GPA, credit load and attrition rate were collected from the institutional dataset of a Hong Kong university in 2019; this dataset contained records of 14,141 native students and 7308 transfer students enrolled between 2012 and 2018. Results show that the transfer students experienced transfer shock and had heavier study loads but lighter non-academic loads than the native students. Despite the transfer shock, they attained a higher award GPA and had a lower attrition rate than their native counterparts. Discussion and implications are presented, in relation to transfer shock and transfer student success. In particular, this article argues that CC education does not necessarily produce academically inferior degree-seeking students and that CC transfer is a viable pathway to baccalaureate study.

Engagement in High-Impact Practices and Its Influence on Community College Transfers’ STEM Degree Attainment

ABSTRACT Guided by the student engagement frameworks, this study sought to identify high-impact practices that show significant relationship with the baccalaureate degree attainment in STEM among vertical transfer students. Our study employed data drawn from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (or ELS, 2002). The sample includes 681 students who intended to study STEM and began post-secondary education at a two-year public institution before subsequently enrolling in a four-year institution. We first employed descriptive statistics to provide an overall portrait of the sample. Then, a logistic regression model was used to identify factors associated with students’ completion of STEM credential at the bachelor’s level or above. The study findings highlight the importance of some high-impact practices in affecting transfer students’ successful attainment of STEM degree. Specifically, we found that participation in community-based project, mentoring and internship programs, and having culminating senior experience increased the odds that transfer students obtained a STEM degree at the baccalaureate level or above. Based on the results, this study offers meaningful implications for policy, practice, and future research to facilitate the success of transfer students in STEM disciplines.

Transfer Student Success on Professional Licensure Assessments for Future Educators

This study examines transfer students in our teacher education programs and their comparative success on the Educative Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA®), a content pedagogy assessment currently required by many states for professional educator licensure and program completion.​ A two-sample t-test using edTPA scores from 2015 to 2019 revealed no statistically significant difference between the mean total scores of transfer students and non-transfer students on the assessments completed by candidates seeking certification in middle and secondary grade subjects. However, the difference between the mean total scores on the elementary education assessment was significant. A chi-square test of independence also revealed a statistically significant relationship between transfer student status and achieving a passing score on edTPA. Transfer students face unique challenges when attempting licensure exams, including differential preparation in their pre-transfer coursework, as well as non-academic factors, such as employment and family obligations, that may contribute to their differential success. A more thorough identification of the academic and nonacademic challenges experienced by transfer students may reveal the need for and form of additional assistance with the skills required to successfully complete licensure exams in any field.

Welcome to the summer 2020 issue of Intersection: A Journal at the Intersection of Assessment and Learning.

Articles in this Issue: Assessing Global Awareness in Associate Level Microbiology: Adapting Case Studies and the AAC&U VALUE Rubrics to Examine the Global Challenges of Mosquito Borne Disease by Sheela Vemu, Ph.D., Jeanne Gillespie McDonald, Ph.D., Nidia Vanessa León-Valderrama, M.D. Creating a Faculty-Centric Approach as a Catalyst to Improve Teaching and Learning by Valerie Landau, M.A., CAS and Christine Broz, M.A. Culture of Assessment Matrix by Kimberly Walker, Ph.D. Probing the Elaboration of Metacognition by Margaret Weck, D.A., Dayton Ford, Ph.D., and Kimberly Kilgore, Ph.D. Transfer Student Success on Professional Licensure Assessments for Future Educators by Rebecca Z. Grunzke, Ph.D., Carlene S. Russell, Ed.D., Caroline L. Young, Ed.S.