Despite recent concerns about the effectiveness of articulation agreements, most colleges and universities continue to base their recruitment and retention strategies for transfer students on expanding the use of such agreements. In this presentation, Virginia Commonwealth University and John Tyler Community College will describe how the development of new articulation agreements resulted in improvements in their recruitment, advising, assessment, retention, and curriculum development planning.
Tell us a little about your presentation.
Fiege: During my time at John Tyler Community College, I’ve been working very closely with Seth Sykes, Associate Vice Provost of Academic Services of VCU, to enhance the transfer partnership between our institutions. At first, there was a state-level guaranteed admissions agreement and all community colleges in the system and all public and many private 4-year institutions participated.
For the past three years, Seth and I worked with our respective staffs to create program specific articulation agreements that would allow students to start their degree pathway at JTCC and continue on to VCU without any difficulties. We successfully set up pathways for business, engineering, nursing, social work, science, teacher preparation, and mass communications, and we are continually working on expanding our repertoire of program-specific transfer pathways. Ideally, we’d like to adapt every program offered at JTCC and offer it as a pathway so students have the option to earn their associate degree at JTCC and transfer to VCU to complete their bachelor’s degree.
In the coming weeks, we will have our first task force meeting, which will comprise of a small team from our respective staffs. We will discuss the transfer partnership and its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Seth and I believe this group will enable the partnership to expand even more.
What kind of issues were these students facing before the creation of these programs?
Fiege: While students could be admitted into VCU through the guaranteed admissions agreement, students faced many other hurdles transferring into a specific program. For one, a student could fulfill the GPA requirement to transfer to VCU through the guaranteed admissions agreement, but might later find that the specific program the student is transferring into requires a higher GPA. Program-specific articulations would also ensure that students fulfill all requirements at JTCC and not have to take a duplicate class at VCU. Now, if a student graduates from JTCC with an associate degree in business with a qualifying GPA, they are able to attend the business school at VCU and not need to repeat any courses.
Have have these types of articulation pathways benefitted the institution?
Fiege: Not only do program-specific articulation pathways make it easier for students from JTCC to continue to VCU and complete a bachelor’s degree, it is also easier for our academic advising offices to facilitate the transfer. JTCC and VCU each have a transfer webpage that displays all the articulation agreements. Through the site, a first semester student at JTCC can map out what courses they have to take and the GPA they have to maintain during their time at JTCC to seamlessly transfer and complete a specific bachelor’s degree at VCU.
After tracking the progress and success of our transfer students, we found that students who transferred to VCU after completing an associate degree at JTCC were just as successful at completing a bachelor’s degree as students who started their freshman year at VCU. However, we found that students who transferred with only 15 or 30 credits from JTCC and have not completed an associate degree were not as successful at VCU. We want to expand this system to cover all academic programs we offer at JTCC so we can encourage more students to complete an associate degree before transferring.
What are some lessons that you hope attendees will gain from your session?
Fiege: Don’t be afraid of developing partnerships; community colleges and 4-year universities need to work together to help transfer students. In developing these partnerships, find the right people from each respective institution to collaborate with in order to move these initiatives forward. All in all, remember that it’s about the students
What are you looking forward at AACRAO SEM?
Fiege: I’ll tell you what I’d love to leave with — JTCC is searching for an Associate Vice President . I’ll be trying to meet people and see if I can find a new addition to the JTCC staff to help us recruit and retain students.
For more information on the position, email Bill at academics@jtcc.edu.