Voices Echo Toward The Assembly to Fill a Critical Gap in Practice

By Autumn Walden, Editor, AACRAO Connect, Content Strategy Manager, AACRAO

According to a recent “Beyond Transfer” column on Inside Higher Ed, nearly 40% of adult Americans surveyed by Public Agenda reported trying to transfer credits toward a college degree or credential, and of those respondents, 58% lost credits in the process. For some respondents, the consequences included exhausting financial aid and repeating classes, or giving up on higher education due to frustration with the transfer process. 

These insights reveal a gap in practice—one that enrollment management professionals are uniquely positioned to address, and that AACRAO “active collaborators” are responding to in real time through the challenge of transfer time-to-decision. 

In the latest episode of “Transfer Tea,” host Dr. Loida González Utley captures candid reflections from practitioners at the recent AACRAO Conference on Strategic Enrollment Management who are confronting enrollment challenges head-on. “Transfer Tea,” an AACRAO podcast exploring transfer students and learning mobility in higher education, has launched its fourth season. In the season-opening episode, “Voices of SEM,” Dr. González Utley, who serves as the new conference director for The Assembly, a reimagined summit focused on learning mobility, speaks with enrollment management professionals from institutions nationwide. Their voices reveal a field at an inflection point, where traditional enrollment approaches are giving way to an updated philosophy: learning mobility.

As Dr. González Utley frames it, "Learning mobility is not just a buzzword. It's a recognition of reality. Learners are not linear. Learning is not confined to a single institution, and talent does not live neatly inside one single transcript."

Three Implications for the Higher Ed and Postsecondary Industry

1. Learners Are Not Linear, and Our Systems Must Adapt: Learning mobility recognizes that modern educational journeys don't follow traditional paths. This requires professionals across admissions, registrar offices, financial aid, advising, and faculty to reimagine how they evaluate learning that occurs across multiple institutions, through work experience, and in non-traditional settings.
2. Systems Interoperability Is Critical to Learner Success: One of the most significant barriers to learning mobility is the inability of institutional systems to communicate with each other. While institutions must maintain standards, service delivery must remain flexible and student-centered, requiring technological solutions that allow seamless transfer of credits, prior learning assessments, and credential recognition.
3. Cross-System Collaboration Is Non-Negotiable: Learning mobility cannot be achieved by individual institutions working in isolation. For enrollment management professionals, this means building intentional partnerships, creating clear pathways, and working across institutional boundaries to reduce friction in the student experience.

Why The Assembly Fills a Critical Gap for Practitioners

The “Voices of SEM” conversations point directly to why The Assembly was created—a new professional convening designed for highly engaged practitioners, or “active collaborators,” ready to advance learning mobility work in tangible ways.

Unlike traditional conferences, The Assembly serves a specific subset of enrollment management professionals and partners: those working directly with transfer students, prior learning assessment, articulation agreements, credential evaluation, and pathway design. These active collaborators are on the front lines of learning mobility, positioned to redesign systems that currently fail students.

Active Collaborators Focus on Practical Implementation Through Learning Mobility Labs

What sets The Assembly apart is its commitment to action. The convening emphasizes learning mobility labs, "spaces where institutions test, pilot, and redesign pathways rather than waiting for perfect solutions," as described in the Transfer Tea episode. This action-oriented approach addresses exactly what SEM practitioners need to problem-solve in real time.

• Julio Reyes from Laredo College highlighted this: "One of the things that I found enlightening … was the connection to continuing from a community college to a university and looking at those bridges to help the students out at a college or transition over to a university level."

  • The Lab on Credit Mobility and Transfer advocates for transparent and consistent credit evaluation processes that support seamless learning progress across institutions and systems.

• Emily Christian from the University of Washington, Bothell, shared a powerful insight: "I learned from my colleagues at WSU Vancouver that their chancellor has a saying, 'you can centralize compliance, but you can't centralize service.'" 

  • The Lab on Professional Development and Support equips higher education professionals with the tools and knowledge needed to design, implement, and sustain learning mobility practices. 

• Jessica Rodriguez from Colorado State University captured what practitioners need: "One thing I think I find motivating is just the collective of people who are able to uplift each other during the crazy times and being to, being able to commiserate and, you know, know that we're not in this alone."

  • The Lab on Advocacy and Policy Work engages in research-informed advocacy to shape federal, state, and institutional policies that advance learning mobility for all learners.

• Juan Gilberto Garcia from Texas A&M International University reflected: "As I was listening to the sessions, [I] found a lot of good ideas of data points that we can add to what we're already doing, and some improvements that we can do on processes and systems that we're already using." 

  • The Lab on Technology Alignment supports the adoption of interoperable, learner-centered technologies that improve record portability and institutional coordination.

• Fabiola Rodriguez from Laredo College noted: "I have been able to learn that a lot of institutions that I've been able to share thoughts with, um, are experiencing the same problems that we are having at Laredo College, and we've been able to think about strategies that can help us improve these issues."

  • The Lab on Establishing Standards and Definitions clarifies consistent frameworks and shared language that institutions can use to support equitable evaluation and documentation of learning.

• Leonore Standing Elk from Fort Peck Community College emphasized, "One of the things I find inspiring is how AACRAO has so many willing participants to support even the smaller colleges that I'm from. And that really, really, really makes me happy that we have that support."

  • The Lab on Coalition-Building and Convenings brings together institutions, partners, and experts to align on best practices, surface challenges, and co-create learner-centered solutions. 

• Elizabeth Reynolds from Colorado State University captured this: "One of the things I find uplifting and kind of inspiring is that we're all working towards the same goal to help make our students’ whatever their light bulb moment is a reality."

  • The Lab on Workforce Alignment strengthens connections between education and employment systems to help learners translate their achievements into career opportunities.

The Space is Ready for Active Collaborators

• Learn what it means to be an active collaborator for The Assembly in July 2026.
• Catch up on the Transfer Tea.