Report: Transfers from 2-year colleges to 4-year universities still declining since start of pandemic

The number of students transferring from two-year colleges to four-year universities continues to decline, according to new national data. Analysts say the trend is “very concerning” because community colleges have historically been a stepping stone toward bachelor degrees for lower income individuals.

A new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center shows “upward transfers” of community or technical college students into four-year universities fell by 7.5 percent between fall 2021 and fall 2022 nationwide.

The trend becomes more pronounced when comparing data from before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Between fall 2019 and fall 2022, the number of upward transfers fell by nearly 80,000 students, or 14.5 percent.

During a Wednesday briefing, Clearinghouse Executive Research Director Doug Shapiro said fluctuations in transfer rates didn’t stand out from overall shifts in college enrollment prior to the pandemic.

“This suggests that baccalaureate degree attainment is beginning to appear increasingly out of reach for community college students, particularly those who enrolled in urban and suburban community colleges,” Shapiro said.

Within the Clearinghouse data, interesting shifts appear with regard to student income levels. During the first two years of the pandemic, transfer rates fell fastest among the lowest income individuals. Last fall, those trends reversed and the largest declines in transfer rates were among the highest income students. Shapiro said researchers aren’t sure what caused that reversal.

In Wisconsin, the research center found around 6,700 fewer students transferred between schools of all types last fall than in 2019. That represents a decline of nearly 28 percent.

The most recent data from the University of Wisconsin System’s Accountability Dashboard shows around 1,300 fewer transfer students coming into state colleges and universities in the 2021-22 school year than in the 2019-20 academic year, a decline of around 12 percent.

Boosting the number of students transferring into state universities has long been a priority for the UW System as many campuses struggle with declining enrollment. To that end, the number of transfer agreements between technical colleges and state universities have increased.

In April 2022, the UW System Board of Regents signed off on eight new liberal arts associate degree programs at state technical colleges, the approvals aimed at boosting transfer opportunities for technical college graduates and growing the number of bachelor degree holders in the state.

But some former UW System leaders have voiced concerns about allowing the Wisconsin Technical College System to expand its two-year liberal arts degree offerings. That’s because the UW’s 13 branch campuses have also long served as pathways to four-year universities. Many of those branch campuses have seen dramatic declines in enrollment over the past decade. One of those, UW-Platteville Richland, will end in-person classes once and for all July 1.