Michael Preston, Ed.D., Executive Director of the Florida Consortium of Metropolitan Research Universities, and Chair of Transfer Success Network.
(Orlando, FL) — An estimated 2.1 million students transferred to a new university or college in 2021, with most beginning their studies at a community college before they transferred to a traditional college or university. According to survey-after-survey, 80% of community college students intend to complete their baccalaureate degree, yet less than 20% do. The members of the Florida Consortium of Metropolitan Research Universities (FIU, UCF, and USF) are national leaders in transfer student enrollment, with more than 15,000 students annually transferring to our universities to finish their degrees.
It was with this knowledge our member universities teamed with Helios Education Foundation and the Lumina Foundation to develop the Transfer Success Network; our core work includes developing new technology designed to help students transition through this process at scale. This new Articulation Platform Technology (APT) is in progress at the University of South Florida. The platform gives prospective students the opportunity to review their transferable credits, preview degree plans, budget time and cost of a degree, and apply for admission all in one place.
In our effort to build the most efficient and functional technology possible, our members on the development committee traveled to Arizona and Kentucky to review many of the best practices rolling out for transfer success across the United States. The week-long tour gave us a chance to review and better understand how the University of Arizona consolidated student success programs both administratively and physically in its student success district. Their work at the University of Arizona included utilizing curricular analytics to ensure that degree programs are as efficient as possible. Catherine Mund, Registrar at the University of South Florida, was impressed with this approach, ” A quote I took away from UA was “Faculty just inherit curriculum,” so they need to be empowered to consider is this the right material for our students to learn and future graduates to bring into the workforce. As much as we consider what concepts need to be added, we also have to consider, what concepts are obsolete or no longer necessary for the degree.” Smart degree planning allowed Arizona to reduce many degrees plans their students needed without compromising rigor or best practices.
Florida Consortium Transfer Success Network poses for a picture outside at the University of Arizona during their week-long Transfer Success Tour in April 2023.
The team then visited the transfer success folks at Arizona State University and explored their innovative MyPath2ASU technology. This technology allows ASU to maintain over 150 unique articulation agreements and scale transfer attendance for students all over the globe through its Academic Alliances program. Through a robust course articulation process, the technology informs students upfront which courses their credits qualify for and how that will impact their time to degree. This information can be valuable as a student is making their enrollment decisions.
Angie Smith, Director of the UCF Transfer Center, was impressed with this technology; “Course evaluation technology and course-by-course and degree pathways on the front end for transfer students make a difference when looking at course applicability and time to degree. We need these tools to build trust with our students.”
Finally, the team rallied in Kentucky and explored the University of Kentucky (UK) pathways technology, Transfer Credit Tool, which they developed over the past year to help transfer students review and plan their UK careers well before setting foot on campus. The short development time impressed our project assessment consultant, Dr. Debra Bragg; “The 3-month time period to build new technology to support transfer student decision-making at the University of Kentucky was simply astounding! What a challenge Kentucky has given our FL Metro consortium universities. It’s so important to make this change happen on FL campuses as well!” To date, thousands of students have accessed academic advising-level information from the comfort of their homes without even having to provide their names or contact information. This allows students to “shop” around for the best educational scenario for themselves.
Florida Consortium Transfer Success network at the University of Kentucky’s Student Union during their week-long Transfer Success Tour in April 2023.
The trip as a whole was a resounding success and helped place into context just how advanced the efforts of our Florida Consortium members are. As David Granda, Lead Application Business Analyst for Florida International University, summed this up when he said, “What I learned is that even though the state of Florida is ahead in many respects, there are always lessons learned from other states.
Kentucky showed us you can implement a new project quickly when everyone buys into the idea. Outside-of-the-box thinking helped them to be very innovative; even the smallest changes can make a big difference in student outcomes.
“One of the benefits of these sorts of visits is the opportunity to compare stages of development and to spend time with the team to implement a successful strategy,” said UCF Registrar Brian Boyd; “The trip was a great opportunity to benchmark our processes with other universities outside of Florida, but also a chance for us to generate and share creative ideas on how our three universities can collaborate on transfer student success initiatives.”
Finally, Elizabeth Carrillo, Associate Director of Transfer and Transition Services at FIU channeled everyone’s feelings when she opined; “The transfer success trip to Arizona was intense and productive. I appreciate the opportunity provided by the Consortium, to meet with other transfer professionals and create a network with real transfer success practitioners, so we can share our best practices, challenges, and achievements.”
The Articulation Platform Technology vendor is due to be named in the next three months, with a prototype ready by the end of the year. We know this trip to Arizona and Kentucky will go a long way to ensure our technology is a national benchmark for student success.
Florida Consortium Transfer Success network at the headquarters of our funding partner Helios Education Foundation in Phoenix, AZ during their week-long Transfer Success Tour in April 2023.