Transforming the Terminal Associates of Applied Science into a Four-Year Degree: A Win-Win Situation for Students,Community Colleges,Universities, and Businesses

Associates of Applied Science (AAS) degrees were once considered terminal degrees and were developed for people seeking technical skills to join the workforce. This paper discusses the transformation from a transferable degree into technical four-year baccalaureate degree. It also discusses survey results of students currently in a degree completion program that includes motives for their progression to a four-year degree.     

Inarticulate Transfer: Do Community College Students Understand Articulation Agreements?

Only 25% of community college students transfer to a 4-year institution within 5 years, and only 17% earn a bachelor’s degree within 6 years of transferring (Jenkins &; Fink, 2015). In response, community colleges have partnered with 4-year institutions to draft articulation agreements, outlining transfer policies and procedures for specific academic programs (Montague, 2012). However, no extant research has examined whether these articulation agreements are readable by community college students. This study examines 100 articulation agreements between 2- and 4-year institutions to answer the question: do community college students understand articulation agreements? Findings indicate that 93% of articulation agreements are unreadable by community college students of average reading ability, with 69% of articulation agreements written at or above a 16th-grade reading level. Implications for practitioners and future research are addressed.     

The effect of articulation agreements on community college transfers and bachelor’s degree attainment

For more than a century, community colleges have provided a postsecondary education alternative to the traditional, 4-year university. Enrolling disproportionate numbers of both disadvantaged and nontraditional students, the community college sector has seen unparalleled gains in enrollment over the past few decades. Along with these increases in enrollment, there has been a shift in focus toward transfer to 4-year institutions, as well as the development of articulation agreements. Established in order to ease the transfer process from community colleges to 4-year colleges/universities—for those students interested in obtaining a bachelor’s degree—these agreements currently exist in more than 30 states. Via two-level, hierarchical linear modeling, this article examines the student and school level characteristics of community colleges that affect transfer and bachelor’s degree attainment rates. Also examined is the impact of articulation agreements. Ultimately, while articulation agreements are not found to yield a significant effect on transfer rates, they are found to have significant, positive effects on bachelor’s degree attainment rates.     

Articulation and Transfer for Career and Technical Students: Best Practices for Dealing with Real and Perceived Barriers to Baccalaureate Degree Attainment for Applied Science Students

ABSTRACT

Community colleges produce large numbers of high quality graduates from career and technical programs. These programs are often of high academic rigor and quality. However, most universities view these Applied Associates of Science (AAS) as being terminal associate's degrees that are not appropriate for transfer. Regional accrediting standards are often cited as the reason for this differentiation. The reality is that institutional policies often simply dismiss AAS courses by their prefix to simplify the process. This study and presentation will explore the reality of what is allowed by accrediting bodies in transferring AAS courses and best practices for facilitating the maximum allowable course transfer.     

Historical Trends of Articulation in America: A Review of the Literature

Articulation agreements have been part of the American educational scene for well over 100 years. Initially implemented as a tool for more effectively and efficiently delivering liberal educations, they became more common as the numbers of community colleges grew during the 1960s and 1970s. During the mid-1980s, the universal education promise of open enrollment was seen by many as a way of “dead-ending” minority students. This perception attracted much scholarly attention and foundation funding. It also resulted in many efforts to improve minority transfer, including negotiated articulation agreements. The past decade has seen higher education expenses increase more rapidly than other state expenses. Articulation agreements are attractive during such periods because of their cost savings potential. Scholars and administrators involved in developing these agreements can prepare themselves for discussions and negotiations by understanding some of the reasons why they have varied in popularity and utility. This literature review analyzed the sociocultural and historical contexts affecting articulation. It also sought answers to research questions addressing the chronological progression and prevalent trends in the development of the processes of articulation, the relationship these trends have to the historical and regional variations in support for articulation agreements, and the levels of student success in articulated programs of study.     

Opening up the road to nowhere: problems with the path to mass higher education in Hong Kong

Hong Kong has moved from elite to mass post-secondary education in a very short space of time and at little cost to the Government. Most of this spectacular expansion in participation has come through enrolments in 2 year associate degrees in recently founded community colleges, which have self-financing status. The achievement has been clouded by complaints from associate degree graduates that the articulation envisaged by the government is not working; so they are unable to obtain places for undergraduate degrees in UGC-funded universities. The value of an associate degree as a suitable terminal award for employment in a knowledge-based economy is yet to be clearly established. There must be doubts as to whether students will continue to enrol in associate degrees if they provide stepping stones to neither employment nor places in undergraduate degrees in UGC-funded universities. In an attempt to deal with the lack of articulation, some community colleges, in conjunction with overseas universities, have started to offer top-up degrees to enable associate degree graduates to convert the award to a degree. However, the resulting qualifications are seen as inferior to undergraduate degrees from the UGC-funded universities.     

Mind the gap: Chinese diploma student views of bridges and barriers to transferring into a Canadian university

One common modality of transnational higher education partnerships is programme articulations. These agreements typically include 1?+?3 or 2?+?2 or 3?+?2 arrangements, whereby students study in their home institution first, and then transfer to complete their degree studies in a partner host institution. In this type of programme articulation agreement, the transfer of students from the home institution to the host institution is not necessarily guaranteed, with many steps and challenges in the students’ decision-making process. While there may be an expectation of articulation between countries and institutions when an agreement is signed, relationships, information and communication to support student transfer from home to host institution can be underestimated. This quantitative study examines a programme articulation arrangement between a Chinese polytechnic and a Canadian university, specifically through a student view. Findings identify barriers to articulation and also the information Chinese students identify as necessary to support their decision-making on whether to progress from a diploma (China) to a degree (Canada), and what types and frequencies of communication are expected.     

Swirling Students: Articulation Between A Major Community College District and a State-Supported Research University

As the country experiences a recession and institutions of higher education increase tuition to compensate for diminishing state support, the transferability of credits among and between institutions is essential to students seeking to earn a baccalaureate degree. Students, parents, and taxpayers cannot afford to pay twice for the same courses or for additional courses. In this environment, articulation becomes a very important issue, particularly when research has shown that a significant number of students enroll in more than one institution on their path to a degree. The focus of this article is the swirling students between the Maricopa Community Colleges and Arizona State University. Swirling students, also a national phenomenon, encounter a number of challenges that institutions need to address. The history of articulation agreements in Arizona was explored to provide insight into the transfer model available to students enrolled at the Maricopa Community Colleges and Arizona State University. The data revealed that the extent of student swirl is greater than initially anticipated and transcends beyond lower division coursework into the senior year. After considering the findings and conclusions based on the data, this article concludes that transparent institutional intentionality is imperative to effective articulation agreements that accommodate student swirl.     

“Do I Really Belong Here?”: The Stigma of Being a Community College Transfer Student at a Four-Year University

ABSTRACT

Students who begin their educational journeys in community college face many obstacles trying to complete their bachelor’s degrees. Much research has been dedicated to identifying academic factors that predict successful transfer and degree attainment, but relatively little research investigates how the community college experience affects these students once enrolled at the four-year university. Here, we present the results of a qualitative study that explored the challenges faced by 14 community college students during and after transfer. Specifically, we focus on student reports of a sense of stigma from having attended community college and how students overcame these feelings. Recommendations are provided for how community colleges and four-year universities can better equip their students with the knowledge and resources to combat this perception of stigma.     

Articulation Visibility at Two-Year Colleges

Articulation between two-year colleges and universities provides a critical opportunity for potential students. Most institutions declare their support of articulation; however, the visibility of this support to potential students is inconsistent at best. Articulation agreements that are visible and easily understood by potential students serve as a motivation to the pursuit of higher education. Conversely, the lack of a complete, visible path to a baccalaureate degree is a powerful deterrent to enrollment. For this study, articulation is a coordinated effort and process to support efficient transfer between institutions of higher education. (DeMott, 1999 DeMott , J. ( 1999 ). Seven steps to articulation success . High School Magazine , 6 , 22 – 24 . [Google Scholar]). The purpose of this study is to explore the general visibility of existing articulation opportunities at two-year colleges. The visibility of articulation agreements is a critical practical factor in their potential positive impact on student behavior and success.     

Precollege Factors and Leading Indicators: Increasing Transfer and Degree Completion in a Community and Technical College System

Today, community colleges are challenged to maintain their historical identity of open access while increasing student success. This challenge is particularly salient in the context of performance-based funding models. These models create student achievements, which determine institutional levels of state funding. Therefore, these new student success metrics are important to the fiscal health of community colleges. In an effort to better identify the likelihood of meeting these metrics, some scholars have suggested leading indicators. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of leading indicators on transfer to a four-year institution and associate degree completion for community and technical college students at Kentucky’s two-year public institutions for groups based on student characteristics. Logistic regression analyses showed that leading indicators do predict transfer to a four-year institution and associate degree completion, but with varying levels of affect. Earning 30 credit hours by the end of the first year, passing a summer class and completing a college-level English class had the greatest effect on transfer to a four-year institution and associate degree completion. For performance-based funding models to be most effective and fair, policies and practices should consider precollege factors in their models. Also, these findings have implications for institutional level policy-making and practices.     

Smoothing the transition to college? The effect of Tech-Prep programs on educational attainment

By promoting articulation agreements between high schools and community colleges, Tech-Prep programs aim to smooth the transition to college for the middle majority of US high school students. This paper employs a family fixed effects approach to assess the effectiveness of Tech-Prep programs in increasing educational attainment. Using data from six rounds of the 1997 NLSY and controlling for both selection and within-family spillovers, I find that Tech-Prep programs help participants complete high school and encourage enrollment in two-year colleges. On the other hand, these gains come at the expense of four-year college enrollment, suggesting that Tech-Prep programs may divert students from four-year to two-year colleges in the years immediately following high school. While Tech-Prep programs appear to increase overall educational attainment, they may be falling short of their goal of promoting college enrollment among the middle majority.     

Implementing transfer and articulation: A case study of community colleges and state universities

This study examined the cultural aspects of a transfer articulation policy between public community colleges and state universities enacted by a newly consolidated state governing board for higher education in a northeastern state. A qualitative multisite case study design explored how key stakeholders, faculty, administrators and staff viewed the transfer policy from their unique perspectives. Tierney’s (2008) cultural analysis of governance was used to examine the effectiveness of communication and decision-making on the part of the board. The study also applied Handel’s (2011) theory of a transfer affirming culture along with Jain, Herrera, Bernal, and Solorzano’s (2011) research on the requisite services for pretransfer and posttransfer success of nontraditional students. The use of several theoretical frameworks provides “a more powerful lens than when using only one in helping to interpret and understand culture” (Kezar &; Eckel, 2002, p. 440). The study was guided by the following question: How do community college and state university faculty, administrators and staff perceive the Transfer Mobility Policy in relation to their campus cultures? The findings identified difficulties with community college curricula and student transfer advising as well as a cultural gap between the community colleges and the state university. They underscored the politics that surrounds higher education governance reform and resultant clash between political and academic cultures. This study may help policy makers promote statewide transfer and articulation initiatives and be instructive for faculty, administrators, and staff as they seek to improve the success of students who transfer from community colleges to four-year colleges and universities.     

Recognition and accreditation of ‘short cycle’ degrees in engineering

Comparing the standards of engineering programmes has never been easy even in one's own country and therefore international recognition is especially difficult with so many different educational systems to contend with. Standards have recently been raised in the UK and the need for two types of professional engineer with an educational base at degree level has been clearly established. The development of 'short cycle' degrees as a supplement to the established 'long cycle' type has been much slower in many European countries, hampered in many cases by the lack of recognition from professional engineering bodies. This paper considers developments in the UK at national level regarding the need, content and accreditation status of 'short cycle' degrees, making some comparison with longer duration degrees. A number of international agreements and a European case study are explored with the argument being made for specifying programmes of study in a manner that is easy to read in order to help facilitate further agreements.     

EQUIVALENCE AND RECOGNITION THE PRAGUE CONVENTION

This article draws attention to the aims and the basic principles of the Prague Convention and to the experience gained with regard to their realization. It explains the need for complementary bilateral agreements and calls attention to the work of national authorities and institutions with regard to the determination of the equivalence of credentials, diplomas, and degrees. It comments on the perspectives of the Prague Convention as well as the possibilities of co‐operation with other agreements and conventions, including those of the Council of Europe.     

Transfer Student Success: Exploring Community College,University, and Individual Predictors

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates community college transfer success by exploring the relationship between individual and institutional-level characteristics at students’ two- and four-year institutions. Using statewide administrative data from North Carolina, this study employs a cross-classified multilevel model to investigate the impact that a student’s community college and four-year transfer institution have on post-transfer success. Our findings offer important and compelling insights into the relationship between transfer students, the community college they attended, the four-year transfer institution, and educational outcomes. While individual effects were small, we find several institutional factors associated with student success. Attendance at a large community college or having a public university in the same county as their community college is positively associated with student success, whereas size of the university is negatively related to grades during the first year and persistence to the second year. While the four-year institution’s selectivity is negatively related to many of our outcomes, transferring to a Historically Black College or University is positively associated with GPA, college persistence, and degree completion.     

Dual Enrollment Participants’ Attainment of an Associate’s Degree from the College in which they Participated in Dual Enrollment as Compared to Nonparticipants’ Attainment

Community college graduates from all disciplines seek the opportunity to earn a four year degree. No longer do these potential transfer students earn their associate degree studying the traditional “transfer program.” Unfortunately, transfer for many of them means the loss of credit and being required to complete more than two years of additional full time collegiate study.

Many colleges and universities provide no special access programming for associate degree holders transferring to baccalaureate degree programs. Where access has been addressed, it often means an articulation agreement has been drawn up between two institutions. However, in a few cases “plus two” or “capstone” programs have been created which provide access to the holders of any associate degree without loss of credit. At question is whether such programs actually provide access to a four year degree with the completion of an additional two years of full time study. This research study addresses that concern.     

Interventions supporting baccalaureate achievement of Latinx STEM students matriculating at 2-year institutions: A systematic review

Numerous national reports have identified the importance of significantly improving pathways that begin with Latinx students enrolling in 2-year institutions and ultimately completing baccalaureate degrees in STEM fields at 4-year institutions. Many programs using multiple interventions have been designed, implemented, and studied to achieve this goal. To synthesize what has been learned from studies of these programs, this article presents a systematic review of published studies of programs designed to support Latinx student success in 2-year institutions and successful transfer to 4-year institutions, particularly for STEM majors. A total of 49 quantitative, 9 qualitative, and 16 mixed-methods studies published as reports, articles, or dissertations since 1980 were identified that met the criteria for the review. Studies covered a wide range of interventions, including mentoring, counseling, advising, study groups, tutoring, scholarships, orientations, career services, undergraduate research, articulation agreements, and transfer programs. Individually, these studies report positive influences on student success outcomes, including 2- and 4-year graduation, transfer to a 4-year institution, retention, and success in individual courses. However, the number of qualifying studies was surprisingly small, considering the importance of improving success of Latinx students and the length of time during which the problem has been repeatedly emphasized. Few interventions have been undertaken from explicitly assets-based perspectives or theoretical frameworks. The lack of explicit frameworks underlying interventions—combined with a sole/primary focus on students—suggests many interventions were approached from a deficit-based perspective. Further, the study found no pattern of replication studies that might confirm effectiveness of potentially promising interventions. Based on our analysis of evaluations presented in the studies, it does not appear that the research community has developed agreed-upon methods to evaluate commonly agreed-upon outcomes. Finally, no intervention has been sufficiently supported that widespread implementation could be recommended.