CHAPEL HILL (Sept. 22, 2021) – Fewer students have transferred from North Carolina’s community colleges to state universities during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report released last week.

But importantly, students who completed their associate degree before transferring performed as well as students who started out at a four-year school.

After repeated increases in university tuition, the UNC System and NC Community College System signed an agreement in 2014 designed to smooth transfers for community college students, and transfers steadily increased until the pandemic.

But the number of students who transferred from community colleges to UNC System schools declined from 11,159 in Fall 2018 to 10,765 in Fall 2019, then to 10,409 in Fall 2020, according to the report to the N.C. General Assembly from the NC Community College and UNC Systems.

“Considering the impact that COVID-19 continues to have on higher education overall, a small decrease of 3.3% (from Fall 2019 to Fall 2020) is understandable and not overly concerning,” the report says.

The 2014 agreement – known among academics as an articulation agreement (inarticulate as that might sound) – emphasized that students should try to complete an associate degree before transferring to a university.

And even as the number of transfers has increased, the number of students who transfer without an associate degree has declined 13.9% since 2016, the report says. 

”This decrease supports the sustained emphasis on degree completion at the community college level prior to transfer to a senior institution,” it says.

The report goes on to show how students who transfer without earning an associate degree tend to lag so-called “native” students who start out as freshmen at a UNC System school.

But students who complete an associate degree first, then transfer as juniors, have an almost identical grade-point average (2.89) as “native” students (2.90).

“These results confirm the foundational principle of the (2014 agreement) that transfer students who complete the associate degree prior to transfer will perform as well as students who began their higher education journeys at UNC System institutions,” it says.

The report says some UNC institutions have developed admission programs that allow advisors to work more closely with prospective transfer students. The UNC System is also developing a common course-numbering system to further simplify the transfer process.

And officials from the two systems are discussing a data-sharing arrangement that could use student records from both systems to assign university credit automatically – a move that could help colleges shift personnel from data-processing to coaching transfer students, the report says.¹

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¹ https://www.northcarolina.edu/apps/bog/doc.php?id=66242&code=bog, pp. 30-40