Report finds transfers from community colleges to 4-year schools rebounding from pandemic

Transfers from community colleges to four-year schools have started recovering from the one-two punch of the pandemic and runaway inflation.

The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center reported Wednesday that movement from two-year schools into four-year bachelor’s programs surged by 7.7%, or 37,037 students, from fall 2022 to fall 2023.

It’s the first time the number has increased annually since 2019, before COVID-19 restrictions shuttered campuses.

From fall 2021 to fall 2022, upward transfers among the study’s representative sampling of 11.7 million undergraduates dropped by 7.5%, or 37,600 students.

The report highlights opportunities for four-year campuses “to grow enrollments by looking more closely at transfer students from local community colleges,” said Doug Shapiro, the executive director of the center, which provides educational research to more than 3,600 colleges and universities.

“Many four-year colleges are still struggling to recover from the enrollment declines of the pandemic years,” Mr. Shapiro told The Washington Times. “Entering freshman classes, in particular, grew by just 0.7% in fall 2023, and saw no growth at all among traditional-age students.”

Overall, the headcount of students transferring into or between four-year institutions grew 5.3% from fall 2022 to 2023. That included increases of 3.7% among students who had taken a break from college and 6.5% among returnees.

The report noted that upward transfers among low-income, rural, Black and Hispanic students drove the growth.

For example, the number of transferring Black students rose by 7.8%, led by those who “stopped out” of college resuming their studies. Transfers among Hispanic students increased by 5%, compared to 2.2% for White students and 0.9% for American Indian students.

The report comes as colleges have struggled with decades of enrollment declines in four-year programs, dwindling revenues, rising costs, shrinking pools of applicants and retention problems with Black and Hispanic students.

In a poll released Wednesday, Gallup found 42% of Hispanic college students and 40% of Black students had considered dropping out over the past six months, compared to 31% of White students. They cited emotional stress, mental health and high costs as the main reasons they considered withdrawing.

Bequita Pegram, a professor teaching social justice at Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black public campus in Texas, said four-year schools attract Black and Hispanic transfer students when they make them feel welcome.

“They want campus environments that create a sense of belonging,” Ms. Pegram said. “Therefore, tuition cost, degree plans, and the distance from home are not the only factors students from marginalized communities consider when deciding to transfer from community colleges.”

According to the National Student Clearinghouse, pandemic lockdowns and inflation hit minority communities hardest, reducing the number of community college transfers to four-year schools.

Last year, the center reported that “baccalaureate degree programs appear increasingly out of reach for community college students.”

According to Wednesday’s report, fall transfers increased from 12.5% of all continuing and returning undergraduates in 2022 to 13.2% in 2023.

Upward transfers also increased more in selective institutions than elsewhere. The center noted that middle- and low-income students made “large gains” in transfers from community colleges to more elite four-year schools.

The center produced the report with support from the Department of Education and other academic groups.

Reached for comment, some higher education groups welcomed the findings.

“Transfer is driven by both external factors and efforts by institutions and systems to improve and expand transfer pathways,” said Hironao Okahana, an assistant vice president at the American Council on Education. “The data show that these efforts are working to support students.”

Others warned that the transfers will do little to address the falling birth rates that have driven the college enrollment crisis.

They pointed out that many recent transfers came from a resorting of students out of weaker institutions, including those that shuttered after the pandemic.

“Another part of this is the use of financial incentives by highly selective colleges that want to enroll more minority students,” said Peter Wood, president of the conservative National Association of Scholars and a former associate provost at Boston University. “Overall enrollments are still down significantly since before the pandemic, and the rate of transfers remains lower as well.”

For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.