Barbara Lauren, Associate Director, Research, AACRAO

1. Building a Transfer System that Works: What We Need to Know from Students What They Need to Know from Us AACRAO Annual Meeting April 21, 2004 Las Vegas, Nevada Barbara Lauren, Associate Director, Research, AACRAO Frank Gelin, Executive Director & Co-Chair, BCCAT Finola Finlay, Associate Director, BCCAT

2. Mandate: To encourage B.C. post-secondary institutions to develop policies and practices that facilitate student mobility, the admission process for direct entry and transfer students, and transferability of post-secondary credit courses.

3. What We Need to Know from Students • Who are these students? • How much do they know about post-secondary education? What do they know about admissions and transfer? How accurate is their information? • What are their expectations for their post-secondary education? • How much planning do they do prior to transfer? Do they know where to find relevant information? Do they know the questions to ask? What are their sources of information? Is it easy for them to find the information they want? • Where are they transferring from/to? What are they enrolling in? • What do they have to say about their transfer experience? • Are they successful? • Are they satisfied? • Are they even listening?

4. What We Need to Know from Students How did we find out?

5. Research Approaches • Transfer Student Profile Reports (1995 – to date) • Survey of Post-Secondary Advising and Admissions Personnel (1997) • Student Surveys and Interviews • Just after transfer (1995 to date) • Before transfer (1997,1998) • Two and five years after baccalaureate degree graduation (2003, 2004) • Survey of Secondary School Counsellors (2003)

6. 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 • grades in specific courses & cumulative GPA • graduation rates; time to graduation • comparisons with direct entry students

7. Distribution of CGPA* at Graduation from SFU B.C. College Transfers vs Direct Entry B.C. Grade 12s • 2206 transfer students who had graduated from SFU had CGPA of 2.91 • 443 direct entry B.C. Grade 12’s who had graduated had CGPA of 3.05 • difference is 0.14 of a GPA *CGPA = Cumulative Grade Point Average

8. Survey of Post-Secondary Advising and Admissions Personnel • 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?

9. Survey of Post-Secondary Advising and Admissions Personnel • 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. • What kind of major difficulties or irritants have you personally observed? Check all that apply.

10. Survey of Post-Secondary Advising and Admissions Personnel Key Findings: • The most “potentially” valuable resource in the advising process was: • An online transfer guide • Clearly defined appeals processes • User friendly student transfer handbook • A “Transfer Liaison Officer” at receiving institutions • Most students do not have a good understanding of the transfer system • 27% of students estimated to experience minor difficulties with the transfer process; 9% with major difficulties • 90% rated system good (55%) or pretty good (35%) • Many helpful and constructive suggestions for improvements

11. Student Surveys – After Transfer • Have conducted five telephone surveys since 1995 of former college students - in 2002, 17,000 interviews out of population of 31,000 - Included 6,800 transfer students measured 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

12. Telephone Survey of Former College Students (Spring, 2002) • Key findings • 85 % (Arts and Science) and 63% (applied program) of students expected to receive transfer credit for their courses • 50% obtained a lot of information about how their courses would transfer, 29% obtained some information, 21 % just assumed courses would transfer • the most important sources of information about the transfer credit were: the BC Transfer Guide or other written documents (63%), counsellor, student advisor, or other college official (48%), an instructor (17%), and students or other individuals they knew (16%) • 88% received the transfer credit they expected • 86% were “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with their transfer experience

13. Telephone Survey of Former College Students (Spring, 2002) Transfer Related Questions: • Q15O What were the reasons you did not get the transfer credit you expected? • Original courses or program were not designed for transfer to _____ • Had completed more credits than you were allowed to transfer • Didn’t know or understand transfer requirements • Received unassigned credit when expected to receive specific credit • Received fewer transfer credits for a particular course than initially received (e.g. a 4 credit course only received 3 credits) • Your courses transferred but you could not use all of the credits toward your degree • Other

14. Telephone Survey of Former College Students (Spring, 2002) Transfer Related Questions: • Q15O What were the reasons you did not get the transfer credit you expected? • Original courses or program were not designed for transfer to _____ 46% • Had completed more credits than you were allowed to transfer 4% • Didn’t know or understand transfer requirements 15% • Received unassigned credit when expected to receive specific credit 14% • Received fewer transfer credits for a particular course than initially received (e.g. a 4 credit course only received 3 credits) 12% • Your courses transferred but you could not use all of the credits toward your degree 13% • Other

15. Student Interviews – Before and After Transfer • 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

16. Student Interviews – Before and After Transfer • Key Findings: Main obstacles to successful transfer were: • difficulty gaining access to useful information • difficulty understanding transfer policies, practices and procedures • declines in GPA following transfer to a university

17. Student Survey – After Baccalaureate Degree Graduation • Telephone survey (2001) of 3500 university students who graduated in 1996 • Focused primarily on graduates’ overall academic experience • Further education beyond the bachelor’s degree • Funding and debt load • Labour market experience, • Social engagement (volunteerism, community involvement, and charitable donations) • Compared the results of direct entry students with transfer students (47% of graduates)

18. Student Survey – After Baccalaureate Degree Graduation • Key Findings: • three times as many direct entrants had completed degrees in computing science, life or physical sciences; more transfer students had completed degrees in the social sciences • greater debt load for college transfer students • remarkably similar outcomes in salary, employment, and social engagement

19. Survey of High School Counsellors • Wanted to solicit their views on the sources, clarity, and effectiveness of information available to high schools about admission requirements to public post-secondary institutions

20. Survey of High School Counsellors • Key Findings: Counsellors see a need for: • Standardized presentation of admissions information • Concise and comprehensive summary • A web-based resource • Addressing confusion with admissions/post-secondary concepts and jargon

21. What They Need to Know from Us

22. What They Need to Know from Us • What is transfer? • How does it work? • Where can I transfer? • How do I get in? • How can I prepare in high school? • What does all the jargon mean? • Can I transfer from any institution? • Is there a downside to the transfer route? • Is anyone even listening?

23. We Developed a Student Handbook • A user-friendly student-oriented guide to transfer in B.C. • Developed by a team of advisors, admissions officers, students • Print and online versions, plus poster and bookmark • 30,000 copies distributed free to all post-secondary institutions • Facilitation Guide for high school use

25. Emphasis on Planning

26. We Redesigned Our Website • Student area • Ease of navigation • Prominent TIPS link • Clean look with hover text • One stop shopping • Still evolving

28. “The Advisor” • New publication • Targeted at students and advisors • Focus on new information, or changes to transfer rules or pathways • “TIPS” red

29. More Help • New FAQs developed as needed, through • Analysis of emails • Analysis of Google terms

30. All student email queries answered promptly To: BCTransferguide@bccat.bc.ca Subject: transfer I'm a second year student of the University of Toronto, and was interested in transferring to the University of British Columbia! I'm currently pursuing the Physical and Mathematical Science Program here at U of T, and want to inquire into what, exactly, is involved in making such a transfer to your physics program. I wonder, if someone could give me some more information. Thank you for your time ! Sincerely,

31. ALL questions answered To dear sir:: 1-chairmain of the university 2-free scholarships department's head it gives me great honour to write to you sir. It gives me a great honour to hear about your university. i have been hearing too much about your university and the best education which it offers. and i have too much pleasure when i know that you offer free scholarships for students dear sir:: i would like to told you that i will be very grateful if i had this free scholarship ….

32. Future Plans • For the website • “My BCCAT” • Maintain personal plan • Admission & Program links • Smart help menu? • Transfer Liaison Person • Currently network only • Eventually “offices”

33. What Else do They Need to Know from Us?

42. The BC Transfer Guide, all surveys, research reports, discussion papers, handbooks, other publications and this presentationare available online at: www.bccat.bc.ca Frank Gelin, Executive Director & Co-Chair, BCCAT email: fgelin@bccat.bc.ca Finola Finlay, Associate Director, BCCAT email: ffinlay@bccat.bc.ca

43. Discussion topic Building a Transfer System that Works: What We Need to Know from Students What They Need to Know from Us

44. Discussion topic Building a Transfer System that Works: What else do we Need to Know from Students? What more do they Need to Know from Us?