Reverse transfer is becoming an increasingly popular and important strategy as institutions and states focus more of their funding and efforts to improving completion rates. If you are considering developing or improving reverse transfer practices at your institutions, this session presented by Jack Miner, Director of Operations, University Registrar at Ohio State University and Frank Yanchak, Registrar at Franklin University, will provide you with best practices and experiences on how to best implement reverse transfer partnerships.
Register for the AACRAO Technology and Transfer Meeting in Austin, TX.
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Jack Miner
Director of Operations, University Registrar
Ohio State University
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Sunday, July 12, 2015 1:45 PM - 3:00 PM
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Tell us a little about your session.
We've done this session in a previous conference, and we have a book chapter in AACRAO's new book The Transfer Handbook: Promoting Student Success. Ohio has been a really great model for reverse transfers because we've set up a system where state institutions are already mandated to exchange transcripts electronically and follow statewide transfer articulation agreements. This is part of an initiative by our governor's office to increase the number of bachelors degree and associate degree holders over the next 5-10 years. One of the great things about the model that we've created in Ohio is about having the infrastructure in place for public institutions to do the trading and having the protocol in place has made it easy to bring on the private colleges and universities as well. When we did this session in the past, one of the things we've seen is many 2-year colleges wanting to participate in reverse transfer, but they can't find any 4-year partners willing to go through the process of manually sending a transcript back to the 2-year college, or create an automated and routine process to aid in reverse transfer.
In this session, I'll bring the public school perspective, and my co-presenter Frank Yanchak will bring the perspective from the four-year private institution.
How is reverse transfer helpful to students and institutions?
From the student perspective, reverse transfer goes back to the root of credentialing and affordability. One of the things we've seen happen often is students starting at 2-year institutions to save money and then transferring to a 4-year institution with intentions of completing in a couple more years. They end up stopping-out or taking a few semesters or quarters off, and they don't have a credential. Reverse transfer gives these students an opportunity to get that associate degree credential while they are still going through the process of earning their bachelors degree. We regularly hear from students who say that receiving an associate degree through reverse transfer helped them get a promotion or a job, or provided them with enough encouragement to earn a bachelors degree.
It’s a little different for institutions. Ohio has created a really aggressive system to make reverse transfer successful. We actually restructured our funding model for public institutions to be based on completion. Just a few years ago, our state funding model was prioritized around enrollment numbers. The new funding model, centered on completion rates, gives two-year schools more opportunity to get a larger share of state funding, because they can demonstrate how they play a role in increasing state completion rates. Four-year schools also get rewarded for helping students earn their associate degree.
What are some lessons you hope attendees will gain from your session?
The reverse transfer process is often new and complicated for many institutions. We hope people will leave this session with answers to many logistical questions — how to deal with common issues regarding FERPA, data transfer, student notifications and office politics.
What are you looking forward to at the upcoming Technology and Transfer Conference in Austin?
I’m looking forward to a group of sessions that the Board of Directors organized around the emerging role of the transcript in the “Extending the Transcript” Track. These sessions and open discussions address what the transcript should be — how can a transcript be more than just a document? What additional information can you provide to better demonstrate a student’s college experience, and how can this be validated and credentialed so other institutions can interpret and utilize this information for their transfer students.