Transfer and Transition Research: A Roundtable Discussion

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Transfer and Transition Research A Roundtable
Discussion Research Approaches to Measuring the
Effectiveness of Admissions and Transfer
Processes in British Columbias Post-Secondary
System
Spokane, Washington, May, 2001 Frank Gelin,
Executive Director Co-Chair, BCCAT
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• MANDATE
• to provide leadership and direction in
  facilitating articulation, transfer, and
  admission arrangements between the College and
  Institute system and the University sector.
• MAJOR ROLE
• to facilitate transferability of post-secondary
  courses so that credit can be applied towards
  baccalaureate degrees in Universities, University
  Colleges, and Institutes.

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BRITISH COLUMBIA PUBLIC POST-SECONDARY
INSTITUTIONS 2000/01
degree granting institutions (14 of 28)
institutions offering collaborative degrees (8 of
28)
UNIVERSITY COLLEGES 5 FRASER
VALLEY KWANTLEN MALASPINA
----------------------------- CARIBOO OKANAG
AN
COLLEGES 11 CAPILANO DOUGLAS LANGARA VANCOU
VER CAMOSUN NORTH ISLAND ---------------------
-------- NEW CALEDONIA NORTHERN
LIGHTS NORTHWEST C. OF THE ROCKIES SELKIRK
INSTITUTES 5
28 BCIT EMILY CARR JUSTICE
INSTITUTE OPEN LEARNING AGENCY BC Open
University Open College Knowledge
Network INSTITUTE OF INDIGENOUS
GOVERNMENT --------------------------------------
- NICOLA VALLEY
UNIVERSITIES 7 SIMON FRASER U. UNIVERSITY OF
BC BC OPEN UNIVERSITY TECHNICAL
UNIVERSITY U. of VICTORIA ROYAL
ROADS --------------------------------- U. OF
NORTHERN BC
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How is our mandate achieved?

• By engaging in activities that
• focus on establishing and maintaining values that
  are supportive of a system that enables and
  supports student mobility between autonomous
  institutions
• keep admissions and transfer issues high on the
  agenda of institutions
• establish effective and efficient transfer
  mechanisms

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Research and Public Policy Objective

• IF it can be shown that
• students who first attend a college are able
  to transfer without difficulty, and
• subsequently perform well in their academic
  studies
• THEN
• the public will retain confidence in the
  community college system
• the universities will readily accept community
  college graduates
• and the entire system of post-secondary
  education can work in a more coordinated fashion
  to improve access for students in a cost
  effective manner.

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Research Approaches

• Transfer student profile reports
• Student surveys
• Student interviews
• Transcript Assessment Studies
• Questionnaires to student admission
  officers/advisors
• Policy discussion papers
• In planning stage Student mobility studies
  using personal education numbers (PEN) and a data
  warehouse

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Transfer Student Profile Reports

• Reports prepared by degree granting institutions
  using institutional records
• number of transfer students who entered
• where students transferred from
• of credits transferred
• of credits taken in first term program of
  studies
• grades in specific courses
• grade point average entering by each term
  cumulative at graduation
• graduation rates time to graduation
• comparisons with direct entry students

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Student Surveys

• Annual telephone survey of former college
  students (18,000 students in spring, 2000 survey)
  measuring perceptions of
• their college experience
• their ability to access institution, program, and
  courses of choice
• their expectations of transfer credit to be
  awarded
• the sources they use for transfer credit
  information
• how many of their courses did not transfer
• the reasons for their courses not transferring
• their overall satisfaction with the transfer
  experience
• Note data has also be used to estimate patterns
  of student mobility

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Student Interviews

• Small group discussions of student expectations
  and transfer experiences
• students at a college planning to transfer to a
  specific university
• students who already had successfully transferred
  from that college to that specific university

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Transcript Assessment Studies

• Conducted by admissions office at each of our
  three largest universities
• stratified random sample of students
• identified all courses not accepted for transfer
• calculated proportion of courses not accepted for
  transfer
• all courses not granted transfer credit were
  entered into a classification system that
  specified reasons why courses were not granted
  transfer credit

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Student Advising Questionnaire

• Questionnaire mailed to admissions and advising
  personnel in colleges and universities
• Examples of questions
• In advising transfer students, how would you rate
  the value of the following current transfer
  guide, on-line guide, institutional catalogues,
  program brochures, personal contacts at receiving
  institutions, your own knowledge of unpublished
  or difficult to find regulations or info, etc.?
• (great value, some value, no value, unknown)
• What information or sources (if any) have you
  found to be unhelpful, flawed or erroneous?
  Please give specific examples of each.
• What information or resources would be
  potentially helpful/valuable to transfer students
  and their counselors/advisors?

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Student Advising Questionnaire (cont)

• Questionnaire mailed to admissions and advising
  personnel in colleges and universities
• In your experience, how would you rate the level
  of knowledge students intending to transfer have
  about the transfer process in BC?
• Based on your experience, what percentage of
  students would you estimate transfer
  successfully, and encounter no difficulties with
  the process? Minor difficulties? Major
  difficulties?
• What kind of minor difficulties or irritants have
  you personally observed? Check all that apply.
• Question repeated for major difficulties.

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Policy Discussion Papers

• Proposed changes to policies and practices
  affecting admissions and transfer are distributed
  system wide to faculty and administration
  inviting response
• forums held to discuss paper
• results objectively analyzed and summarized for
  consideration by the BC Council on Admissions and
  Transfer
• recommendations formulated

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Measures of Student Mobility

• every student in elementary, secondary, and
  post-secondary system is now assigned a personal
  education number (PEN)
• detailed student record system from each college
  electronically transferred to central data
  warehouse
• data definitions and standards developed
• warehouse should be completed by March, 2002
• will enable detailed analyses of student entrance
  into and flows between all institutions in the
  data warehouse
• will also be used to measure FTEs, program and
  course enrollments, key performance indicators,
  etc.

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Want more information?
All BCCAT research studies www.bccat.bc.ca
Information on student outcomes survey and
information on the data warehouse www.ceiss.org

Frank Gelin, Executive Director Co-Chair,
BCCAT email fgelin_at_bccat.bc.ca