Transforming Student Transfer in Texas Higher Education

It is estimated that as many as 80% of students entering community college intend to transfer for a bachelor’s degree or more. Yet, here in Texas as it is across the US, only about a third of community college students make the move to a university and fewer still, only 16%, earn a bachelor’s degree within six years.

The complexities of the transfer process have been the focus of an increasing number of national reports, as educators, including those in Texas, explore solutions to the transfer problem. In addition, recent legislation (including SB 25, SB 1887 and HB 8) has created a framework and impetus for Texas educators to address many of the issues that negatively impact student transfer rates and success.

Now, a collaborative group of North Texas institutions has come together to reduce the barriers to transfer and improve outcomes for Dallas-area transfer students. With initial funding from the Commit Partnership’s Opportunity 2040 Fund and JP Morgan Chase, four schools – Dallas College, Texas A&M University-Commerce, Texas Woman’s University and the University of North Texas at Dallas – have formed the Dallas Transfer Collaborative.

The goal of the Dallas Transfer Collaborative is to help students successfully earn their bachelor’s degrees on schedule and with reduced financial burden, and transition into high demand, higher paying careers. Starting from Fall 2024, the Collaborative will introduce programs and technologies designed to simplify a student’s transfer journey from community college to a university and into the workforce.

The first phase includes two components, developed to help prevent students from losing transfer credits and meet the planning needs of prospective transfer students:

Simplified programs of study, or Meta Majors, in high demand fields, that provide mutually agreed-upon blocks of lower-division courses that will be accepted for credit toward several related majors in each field by partnering universities. The first set of Meta Majors will launch in business, education and health sciences.

A centralized transfer website (the Hub) that includes all resources and information required for transfer to A&M-Commerce, TWU, UNT Dallas, and other institutions. The site will include real-time credit-to-degree technology, allowing prospective students to quickly and easily see how their credits will transfer into degrees at participating institutions and view their progress towards degrees.

In future years, the Dallas Transfer Collaborative plans to develop and launch further Meta Majors, including STEM/IT, and explore the development of more streamlined transfer processes and transfer-specific student supports.