by Brandy Reeves, Registration Officer, Utah State University
Not every student begins and ends their academic career at the same institution. More and more often, students transfer from one institution of higher education to another. As higher education professionals charged with helping students become lifelong learners along their path to completion, it is incumbent on us to make the transfer process as seamless and efficient as possible for our incoming transfers. One of the most effective ways our institutions can assist in this process is through the development of transfer articulation agreements.
It is to this end that AACRAO is releasing a new guide in a series of free publications relating to transfer articulation proficiency, the “Guide to Best Practices: Articulation Agreements.”
The guide, meant to help improve transfer partnerships at our institutions, provides insight, suggestions, and resources for best practices in the following:
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Defining types of agreements;
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Instruction on developing agreements;
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Presenting strategies for implementation of agreements and,
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Processes for administering and providing oversight of agreements.
If your aim is to develop new agreements, or improve on existing agreements, this guide will assist in providing pathways that serve all three entities of the articulation agreement process: the student, the sending institution, and the receiving institution. Students need a seamless and simplified transfer process. Sending institutions need to promote their ability to properly prepare students for transferring. The receiving institutions need to increase transfer enrollment of students who are prepared and ready for success at their institution. For an articulation agreement to be successful, it must benefit all three constituencies.
As with AACRAO’s first transfer publications, the “Student and Transfer-Institution Bill of Rights”, and the “A Guide to Best Practices: Awarding Transfer and Prior learning Credit,” this guide is meant to simply provide suggestions and recommendations. (See publications at the AACRAO Transfer and Articulation page.) It is up to you and your institution on how to implement the best practices provided.
Join your fellow Transfer Articulation colleagues 10:30 AM, Wednesday, April 3, at the 2019 AACRAO Annual Meeting to hear Seth Kamen, Assistant Vice President for Undergraduate Recruitment and Strategy at the University of Baltimore, introduce the guide, and be a part of the discussion for future suggestions and content.
AACRAO’s “Guide to Best Practices: Articulation Agreements” can soon be found on the AACRAO Transfer Initiatives page along with other existing guides and reports.