Many college and university students transfer to another institution at least once before completing a degree program. In fact, it is becoming increasingly common for students to attend three or more colleges or universities en route to getting a degree. Student mobility creates challenges for both students and higher education institutions as students attempt to fulfill degree requirements with course work from multiple sources and institutions struggle to verify course equivalencies.

The traditional view of transfer is that it operates in a linear fashion: a student begins at a community college, completes an associate degree, transfers to a university, completes an additional two years, and graduates. Very few of today’s highly mobile students actually conform to this pattern. Among the factors that complicate the transfer picture are students who:

• Take dual credit, advanced placement, or Tech-Prep courses, earning college credit while still in high school;
• Enroll concurrently at two or more colleges or universities in the same area;
• Attend a residential university and pick up courses at a community college when they return home for the summer break;
• Take some college courses through distance education while attending classes at their home college or university; and/or
• Attend a university first, transfer to a two-year school, and later transfer to another university.

Fortunately, Texas public higher education institutions, the state Legislature, and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board have worked together to create a number of tools that make transfer easier, especially for students who are moving from one Texas public college or university to another. Some of these are:

The Texas Common Course Numbering System    www.tccns.org/ccn/
Through a voluntary agreement, all public colleges and universities and many private ones participate in common course numbering, which is a way of identifying similar courses that are taught on different campuses. All member institutions either use the common course prefixes and numbers on their own campuses or cross-list them with their local course numbers in their catalogs.

The Statewide Core Curriculum and Field of Study Curricula    www.thecb.state.tx.us/ctc/ip/core11_00/index.htm
In 1997, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 148, which mandated the creation of a transferable core curriculum that would apply to any bachelor’s degree at a Texas public university. Each community college and university must identify a core curriculum of between 42 and 48 semester credit hours (SCH) that meets certain criteria. A student who completes the core curriculum at one public institution and transfers to another may substitute all the courses successfully completed in the core curriculum of the sending institution for an equal number of SCH in the core curriculum of the receiving institution, even if the courses included in the two institutions’ core curricula are different. Students who know what they want to major in may also consider taking a field of study curriculum (FOSC) that covers the lower-division courses for a specific major. Students who take approved FOSC courses may transfer them to any applicable degree program at a Texas public university. Field of study curricula currently exist for early childhood education, middle grades teacher certification, music, nursing, criminal justice, general business, computer science, engineering, engineering technology, and communication. Additional fields will be added each year; for example, fully transferable associate degrees for some teacher certification fields should be completed in 2004.

Articulation Agreements
Both public and private colleges and universities in Texas have cooperative agreements to help students transfer their course work without losing credit. Most of these agreements involve the student’s choice of major and many of them are specific between two institutions. Contact the transfer office at a college or university to ask about specific articulation agreements.

“Reverse Transfer”
Sometimes community college students transfer to a university a few courses shy of associate degree completion. After they transfer, the students may complete the requirements for an associate degree. Many community colleges are happy to transfer the additional courses back and award the associate degree. This is especially valuable for students who take a long time to complete the bachelor’s degree or who never complete one, because it means they will have a credential for some of their time in college. Contact the registrar of the student’s community college for more information.

Transferring Non-Academic Coursework
Just a note about the transferability of applied associate degrees which are technical in nature…. It’s important for all students entering applied associate degree programs (whether at private career schools or public two-year colleges) to understand that many of the applied course credits do not transfer into traditional bachelor’s degree programs if students later decide to continue their education. This is beginning to change, as a number of Texas universities now offer applied bachelor’s degree programs (the BAAS or BAT) that accept more technical credit in transfer. It’s a good idea for students to think long-term before they choose a career field, type of associate degree, or major.