Transfer students represent approximately 35 percent of Delta College’s student population (Delta College, n.d.). According to the college’s Institutional Research department (Kevin Hobart, August 14, 2024, personal communication), from 2014 to 2019, 2,796 Delta College students completed an associate’s degree program; 1,851 of those students transferred to a four-year institution and 1,357 completed a bachelor’s degree at their transfer institution.

As part of our efforts to strengthen transfer student success and Delta’s work with postsecondary partners, one of the college’s strategic initiatives is to “assess and revise postsecondary articulation agreements, as necessary, to ensure seamless transfer after a student completes their degree at Delta College” (Delta College, 2023, p. 5). Over the past year, both administrators and faculty have begun this journey, led by the Dean of Transfer Programs and Online Learning. First, we had to improve our transfer outcomes by focusing on a few key elements: promoting transfer agreements that were already in place; working toward additional transfer agreements that make sense for Delta students; helping students to avoid credit loss through program pathways; and, most importantly, communicating our transfer goals to the wider Delta community, all in an effort to address the leaky transfer pipeline.

Delta College has transfer agreements in place with four-year partners both in the Great Lakes Bay region and throughout Michigan. Working alongside our president, Dr. Michael Gavin, we reviewed where most of our students were transferring and how we could best help them get there. As part of this process, the Institutional Research department compiled a list of the 10 transfer institutions—mostly in-state—to which Delta students transfer (Delta College, n.d.). Recognizing the opportunity to impact a greater number of students, we are primarily focusing our efforts on these institutions. Delta innovated its approach by having fresh conversations with partners to focus on student completion of an associate’s degree before transferring as a junior or senior. Following through on the idea that completion leads to completion, we wanted to generate excitement around our students having the potential to earn two degrees: an associate’s degree and a bachelor’s degree. While we continue to build and maintain traditional 2+2 agreements, where we emphasize completion of an associate’s degree at our college before students transfer, we have also leveraged our four-year partners for more 3+1 agreements to encourage savings for students, especially those who are place bound. With the ever-increasing popularity of online learning, we are also asking our partners to offer the fourth year of 3+1 pathways online to make a bachelor’s degree even more attainable.

To promote both previous and new transfer agreements, we are:

1. Working with Delta’s marketing department to ensure that the agreements and resulting pathway options are reflected on our website and in various marketing materials;
2. Communicating more closely with Delta’s student services/advising staff to keep them in the loop; and
3. Requesting feedback and suggestions from advisors, as they are in the trenches supporting our students’ transfer efforts.

Furthermore, we are collaborating with advisors and faculty to develop discipline-specific transfer pathways for more popular programs to not only help these students complete, but also prepare them for academics at a university. Delta’s history and psychology departments are leading the way with discipline-specific transfer guides that we put into the hands of advisors and students to help students stay on track for transfer. We hope these guides will create a sense of belonging among transfer students and that they begin to think of themselves as history or psychology majors as they move toward completion of an associate’s degree and prepare to attend a four-year college. As we work with our four-year partners, these guides help to facilitate a more collaborative approach to benefit students. This approach includes research opportunities and conference attendance while students are enrolled at Delta as well as access to scholarships to help with attendance costs at a four-year institution.

Both our advisors and faculty are acutely aware that while 80 percent of community college students say they want to earn a bachelor’s degree, only 16 percent do so (Velasco et al., 2024). As part of the process of reevaluating agreements with transfer partners, we are also looking to improve reverse transfer options for students who were only a handful of credits away from earning an associate’s degree when they moved on to a four-year partner. Prioritizing reverse transfer will help students gain a college credential at Delta College and further prepare them for success at their chosen four-year institution.

Linking completion and transfer requires collaboration among college offices that are not always in lockstep. Delta College aims to end the proverbial leaky pipeline of students who intend to transfer by engaging the various departments and divisions that support student success in the process of aligning transfer agreements with the strategic plan. Introducing pathways in our top transfer disciplines can help students gain a sense of belonging at our college while also motivating them to complete programming both at Delta College and at the university level.

References

Delta College. (n.d.). Facts and figures. https://www.delta.edu/about-us/facts-figures.html

Delta College. (2023). Delta College 2023-2027 strategic plan. https://www.delta.edu/employees/strategic-planning/_documents/StrategicPlan2023-27forBoardApproved03.07.23corrected.pdf

Velasco, T., Fink, J., Bedoya-Guevara, M., Jenkins, D., & LaViolet, T. (2024). Tracking transfer: Community college effectiveness in broadening bachelor’s degree attainment. Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University. https://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/publications/Tracking-Transfer-Community-College-and-Four-Year-Institutional-Effectiveness-in-Broadening-Bachelors-Degree-Attainment.html

Dr. David P. Hopkins, Jr. is Dean, Transfer Programs and Online Learning, and Emily Clement is Associate Director, Transfer Partnerships, at Delta College in University Center, Michigan.

Opinions expressed in Member Spotlight are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the League for Innovation in the Community College.