Facilitate Smooth Credit Transfer and Grant Credit for Prior Learning, Service, and Work

Between public institutions of higher education within the same state, so-called articulation agreements outline how credits transfer between institutions. Credit transfer can increase persistence and completion of a four-year college degree. Some institutions have offered the guaranteed transfer of an associate degree to a four-year institution when learners meet certain conditions of academic achievement. 

For such programs to be successful, faculty should be at the center of any efforts to design articulation agreements, because meaningful credit transfer will result in credits counting toward required courses for general education prerequisites and/or courses in a major program of study. Courses that have the same title do not necessarily cover the same material. Higher education leaders should create the conditions for faculty to crosswalk their learning standards, competencies, and coursework to build articulation agreements for meaningful credit transfers. To increase the impact of these agreements, state leaders can work with faculty across all public higher education institutions to develop core general education courses that are guaranteed to transfer to all other public institutions.

Another mechanism to smooth the transfer experience for learners is for higher education institutions to create dual-admission agreements that allow for contemporaneous enrollment at two institutions and increased services for participating learners. When two- and four-year institutions of higher education enter into these agreements, learners are accepted into both institutions with a plan to complete preliminary courses at the two-year college. Upon meeting certain conditions, they then face a simpler transfer process to complete their studies at the four-year college.

A related mechanism is the “reverse transfer,” when a learner who began their studies at a two-year college transfers to a four-year institution before completing their associate degree requirements.2 Smooth transfer of credits earned at the four-year school to a two-year college can then result in the learner receiving an associate degree while they either continue their studies or, if they have stopped pursuing a bachelor’s degree, avoid leaving school with some college credit and no credential. These agreements can be an important foundation for transfer partnerships between two- and four-year higher education institutions.

Finally, learners returning to college after time spent in the workforce, military, or a service-year program often desire credit for college-level learning they have experienced outside a classroom setting, such as in workforce training or the workplace. Credit for such experiences can be an important boost in accelerating the path to a college degree or other industry-valued credential. These programs can reduce the cost of and increase access to postsecondary education, while increasing a learner’s ability to obtain a four-year college degree. Like articulation agreements, however, a careful evaluation should be performed to ensure that college credit is appropriately given.3