Transferring from a community college to a four-year institution can present challenges. If units don’t transfer, students find themselves needing to repeat courses in order to complete degree requirements. Support services for transfer students at their new campus tend to be under-resourced. Many transfer students are first-generation college attendees. They are often from lower-income families and/or are under-represented minorities. Several Bay Area universities are developing ways to reach out to transfer candidates early, providing guidance in mapping their transfer pathway, and then helping them to complete their degree in two years.

In recent years, the University of San Francisco (USF) has made progress in recruiting, admitting, and graduating more transfer students. Using the UC system’s Transfer Pathway program as a model, in conjunction with the California Community Colleges Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) pathway, USF has streamlined the course-approval process and formalized partnerships with two key feeder community colleges, Foothill and DeAnza, which together comprise Foothill-De Anza Community College District (FHDA).

Existing philanthropic support for the FHDA-USF partnership is focused on humanities-related degrees. USF sought Koret funding to expand its support of transfer students across a spectrum of degree programs, by developing articulation agreements with its top 10 feeder schools for USF’s top 10 majors.

A new web-based information hub will help prospective transfer students easily verify which of their courses are accepted by USF toward degree requirements. The hub will include an advising page for transfer students to support recruitment, retention, and on-time graduation. The Koret grant will also provide for a program manager and for staff to support the Registrar’s Office in mapping multiple partnership agreements with community colleges into the new online system.