Creating bridges, not barriers

“About 40% of all U.S. undergraduate students attend two-year colleges, according to the Community College Research Center at Columbia University. Most students come through the door with the intent to transfer, but find their path blocked by credit loss, financial obstacles, or an aggravating lack of reliable information. Despite surveys indicating that nearly 80% of community college learners aspire to earn a bachelor’s degree, only about one-third transfer to a four-year institution. And less than half of students who do transfer earn a bachelor’s within six years of initial enrollment. Administrators say this issue is more reflective of an unfair and underfunded system than of a student’s lack of ability. This article comes from the current issue of the Community College Journal, the bimonthly magazine of the American Association of Community Colleges . “If students were given the right support, they would do well,” says Jen Gilbride-Brown, vice president of student success and experience at Columbus State Community College (Ohio). “It’s not a talent gap, but an opportunity gap. The challenge remains the funding – a lack of investment over generations.” Across the country, community colleges are collaborating with universities and policymakers to develop seamless transfer pathways. States like South Carolina have turned to wholesale transfer reform, while Louisiana is actively aligning its instruction, advising and academic resources. In Ohio, Columbus State and city officials launched the Columbus Promise , guaranteeing Columbus City School graduates two years of tuition-free education. Since its 2021 launch, the joint initiative has offered more than 3,000 students a free ride to Columbus State. The Ohio program – a partnership among the city, Columbus State and education nonprofit I Know I Can – covers tuition and mandatory fees while providing a $500-per-semester stipend for supplemental costs. Columbus Promise hit a snag at the end of 2025, when a $1.2 billion city budget did not include funding for the initiative. Though committed to the next two graduating cohorts, the program is seeking sustainable long-term dollars, Gilbride-Brown says. Related article: College transfer as a workforce strategy The longevity of Columbus Promise is a cornerstone of student prosperity and regional growth, she adds. “It’s exciting to be part of this critical mass of work that’s changing how people think about entering education,” Gilbride-Brown says. “There are many points of entry available for students at the right time, in the right way and at the right price.” About 80% of Promise scholars receive some form of Pell assistance, with more than half the first in their family to attend college. To further support transfer students, Columbus State is offering eligible graduates a tuition-free pathway to complete their bachelor’s degree at Ohio State University. Building on a foundation Building on a partnership established in 2011, Buckeye Bridge guarantees admission and credit transfer for Ohio-based low- to middle-income associate degree holders. More than 1,000 students already transfer between the colleges each year and Buckeye Bridge aims to increase that figure upon launch this spring, notes Gilbride-Brown. Columbus State and Ohio State currently offer 75 specialized 2+2 pathways, providing a structured roadmap from an associate degree to a bachelor’s. To qualify for Buckeye Bridge, students must file an annual FAFSA, maintain full-time enrollment at Ohio State, and have a family adjusted gross income of $100,000 or less. Certain Ohio State majors and colleges maintain supplemental entrance criteria or highly competitive selection processes, according to Gilbride-Brown. The partner institutions are expanding their transfer agreement for technical programs that previously lacked clear pathways. Fields such as cybersecurity and engineering technology are leading examples of this ideally frictionless path to graduation. “If you’re coming from a two-year school, these courses must be applicable to a university,” Gilbride-Brown says. “We’re always trying to improve, particularly in the applied sciences, to map on in ways that eliminate credit loss. We’re working with Ohio State to smooth those issues.” Streamlining the transfer journey Student transfer can be an anxiety-inducing process marked by lost credits, prolonged degree completion and financial frustration. In South Carolina, about 38% of first-time college students transfer at least once, losing an estimated 43% of credits, per data from an Articulation Action Plan the state released in 2023. Lower-income learners are nearly half as likely as their higher-income peers to transfer to a four-year institution (25% vs. 41 %), and fully half as likely to obtain a bachelor’s degree within six years (11% vs. 22%). As stated by the Community College Research Center, “The current system, underperforming as it is, works twice as well for white students as it does for Black and Latinx students, and twice as well for higher-income students as for lower-income students.” With these obstacles in mind, the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education (CHE) is streamlining the transfer journey for community and technical college students statewide. Through the CHE-developed Statewide Transfer Task Force – a coalition of private and public educators, administrators and policymakers – South Carolina is better equipped to tackle pain points in the system, supporters say. “Before the reforms, this process was not as structured,” says Lori Heafner, vice president for academic affairs at Horry-Georgetown Technical College (HGTC). “Students would get an associate degree and may have false perceptions about the full transferability of their credits, unless there were specific agreements with individual institutions. Those students could lose credits, because those credits may not have been accepted on the university side except as electives perhaps.” Related article: The college transfer generation As the state’s new transfer oversight entity, CHE leads regular meetings for transfer policy development, collaboration and professional learning. In addition, South Carolina is replacing its outdated South Carolina Transfer and Articulation Cente r (SC TRAC) web portal, recently entering a two-year agreement with national nonprofit Ithaka S+R to pilot the Transfer Explorer platform. The updated portal simplifies course lookups and provides personalized degree-tracking for transferred credits. Other CHE recommendations include more consistent credit transfer standards, as well as better facilitation of the reverse transfer process. Although these reforms should alleviate the accumulation of excess credits, the CHE cannot force four-year colleges and universities to apply courses toward specific degree requirements, Heafner says. “The CHE is a coordinating body, not a governing body, so they can’t demand that every university take English 201 as a one-for-one into American Lit,” she says. “So, they’ll give you an elective credit, but you still have to take their English. The system is getting better, but it depends on the receptiveness of faculty.” Broader institutional buy-in would validate that community college courses provide learning outcomes equivalent to university standards, Heafner says. HGTC has a robust transfer partnership with Coastal Carolina University, encompassing precisely tailored credit transfers along with access to the university’s student union. Still, it’s the lack of buy-in from other colleges that has Heafner wishing for a policy with more teeth. “(The CHE) is saying you need to do this, then it’s left up to the institution to make it happen,” she says. “We’ve put policies in place saying that these are courses that will transfer, but colleges still have autonomy, and a course may not actually apply to your major.” There’s more to this article! Read the full article. The post Creating bridges, not barriers first appeared on Community College Daily .

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