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Topic: Credit mobility

Past Event
February 22, 2023

Holistic Credit Mobility

An Innovative Framework to Foster Credit and Learning Mobility

On Wednesday, February 22 from 2:50 – 3:40 pm PST at the National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students Conference, Sarah Pingel will present on Ithaka S+R’s holistic credit mobility project with Ascendium Education Group’s Carolynn Lee. The session will define the concept of holistic credit mobility and propose a framework to understand how higher education can be responsive to the needs of today’s mobile students. The session will include worked examples that allow participants to…
Past Event
March 7, 2023

Shark Tank: Edu Edition

SXSW 2023 Session

At SXSW EDU 2023, Ithaka S+R’s Catharine Bond Hill, the Chronical of Higher Education’s Goldie Blumenstyk, and Guild Education’s Paul Freedman will serve as “sharks” in the eighth annual pitch-a-thon hosted by the Chronicle of Higher Education. The judges will weight in on transformative ideas from contestants representing new companies, nonprofits, and big dreamers from improving the college experience. The session is scheduled to take place on March 7, 2023 at 4:00 – 5:00 pm CT at the Austin…
Blog Post
November 30, 2022

Supporting Mobile Students to Credential Completion through Holistic Credit Mobility

People learn in more places than ever before—earning credits from high school or dual enrollment courses, picking up certifications for job advancement, gaining experience through the military, and more. While many colleges, universities, and employers have begun translating this accumulated learning into transcriptable credits, students frequently find that institutions will not count their previously accumulated credits.
Issue Brief
November 16, 2022

Holistic Credit Mobility

Centering Learning in Credential Completion

In this issue brief, we introduce holistic credit mobility as a framework for making sense of contemporary student mobility and devising solutions that center the success of mobile students with multiple forms and sources of validated learning. In the sections that follow, we define holistic credit mobility and highlight strategies to support its effective deployment throughout postsecondary institutions and systems.
Past Event
October 18, 2022

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due: An Exploration of Articulation of Credit Transfer (ACT)

Grantmakers for Education Annual Conference

Martin Kurzweil and Lexa Logue will participate in a panel with the Hecksher Foundation's Peter Sloan and the Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation's Miss. Cass Conrad focusing on new ways the Articulation of Credit Transfer project is helping students gain their credentials. The panel will discuss a transparent, public facing resource developed within The City University of New York system. The panel is scheduled to take place on October 18 at 1:45 - 3:00 pm CT. …
Blog Post
March 17, 2022

Evaluating the Transfer Pathways to the Liberal Arts Initiative

Strengthening transfer pathways between two-year and independent not-for-profit four-year institutions is one under-utilized way to increase transfer and bachelor’s degree completion. Independent colleges offer high graduation rates, flexible degree options, and personalized supports that can assist students looking to complete a four-year degree. Increasing transfer to these institutions at scale can be accomplished through state- or consortium-wide pathways that link all community colleges in a state to a critical number of independent four-year institutions.  The…
Research Report
March 17, 2022

Playbook for Transfer Pathways to the Liberal Arts

How to Design and Implement Statewide Pathways from Community Colleges to Independent Colleges

Bachelor’s degree attainment for community college transfer students is one underutilized but essential pathway for reducing equity gaps in higher education. One way to achieve this at scale is through state-level initiatives dedicated to supporting transfer from community colleges to not-for-profit independent colleges. The Teagle Foundation and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations’ Transfer Pathways to the Liberal Arts initiative aims to create such pathways in 20 states in the next five years. This playbook draws on the experience of grantees…
Blog Post
February 2, 2022

Bringing Credit Transfer into Focus

New Report on the Articulation of Transfer Credit at CUNY Project

When a student transfers from one college to another, the receiving college has to decide how to treat the credits that the student earned at prior institutions. While the specific process varies from place to place, in general, the institution has to make two interrelated decisions: (1) the course equivalency—how each course the student completed at another institution translates into courses in the catalog at the new institution, and (2) how the translated courses…
Research Report
February 2, 2022

Archiving Degree Audit Data to Measure and Reduce Lost Transfer Credit

Since June 2019, the Articulation of Credit Transfer project (ACT) has focused on streamlining the information, advising, and administrative processes concerning how credits from one City University of New York (CUNY) institution transfer to another CUNY institution. This work addresses a critical challenge at CUNY, and indeed, across American higher education. When students transfer from one college to another, they frequently are unable to count their previously earned credits toward degree requirements at their new institution, jeopardizing their ability to…
Past Event
January 10, 2022

The Chronicle’s Strategic-Leadership Program

For Department Chairs

Department chairs help make important curricular, personnel, and budget decisions and increasingly play a crucial role in innovations around student success, research, and technology. Yet, while the department chair is typically the first rung on the ladder to senior leadership in academia, many take on the position without the necessary training or mentorship. We at Ithaka S+R are thrilled once again to be working with The Chronicle of Higher Education and Dever…
Past Event
November 9, 2021

Solving Stranded Credits

James Ward at State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) Annual Conference

On November 9, James Ward Solving will present on Stranded Credits at the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) Annual Conference. Abstract: In this session we hope to introduce the issue of stranded credits, or credits students cannot access due to unpaid balances that result in a transcript hold. We estimate roughly 6.6 million students across the country may currently have stranded credits. Three presenters will share information and new research on the scope of the problem and how it…
Issue Brief
July 21, 2021

Right in Your Backyard

Expanding Local Community College Transfer Pathways to High-Graduation-Rate Institutions

Each year, our country’s most selective four-year institutions invest significant resources to recruit talented high school students from across the country. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, admissions representatives traveled far and wide to convince these prospective students that the academic rigor, amenities, and opportunities at their institution are unparalleled. These students, mostly affluent and white, contemplate admission offers and consider moves to new locales to pursue their postsecondary plans. Yet, many of these selective institutions are overlooking a talented and diverse…
Blog Post
December 15, 2020

Ithaka S+R to Expand Transfer Improvement Efforts with CUNY

With Support from the Petrie Foundation, ACT Project Expands from Three to Seven CUNY Campuses 

When students transfer from one college to another they frequently are unable to count their previously earned credits toward degree requirements at their new institutions, jeopardizing these students’ ability to earn their degrees. Nationally, 43 percent of credits are wasted during transfer, and students who lose that many credits are far less likely to graduate than students who are able to transfer most of their credits. While other…
Blog Post
July 14, 2020

Streamlining Transfer for CUNY Students in the Bronx

Approximately one-third of college students begin their postsecondary education in community colleges, yet over 80 percent of these students aspire to earn at least a bachelor’s degree. In order to achieve their goals, these students will need to transfer from their community colleges (which mostly offer associate’s degrees) to colleges that offer bachelor’s degrees. Yet, only 13 percent of students successfully transfer and earn a bachelor’s degree within six years of entering community college. Black and…
Blog Post
June 11, 2020

New Report Identifies Strategies for Independent Colleges Looking to Improve Transfer Pathways 

Covid-19 has fundamentally altered the landscape of higher education, producing both challenges and opportunities for higher education institutions to better serve traditionally understudied student populations. Transfer students, specifically students that transfer from community colleges to four-year independent colleges, are one such population that has been historically underserved but whose needs will be all the more relevant during and after the pandemic. Enrollment shifts caused by the pandemic highlight the need for…
Research Report
June 11, 2020

Transfer Pathways to Independent Colleges

Every fall, an estimated one million American students begin their postsecondary education at community colleges. In fact, close to half of all postsecondary students start off at these institutions—especially students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. While most intend to eventually earn their bachelor’s degree, less than a third transfer-in to a four-year institution and only 13 percent actually earn their bachelor’s degree in six years. Transfer between two- and four-year institutions is a difficult pathway for students, leaving the well-documented benefits…
Research Report
June 11, 2020

Executive Summary: Transfer Pathways to Independent Colleges

COVID-19 and its aftermath highlight the urgency for innovation around community college to independent college transfer. The pandemic is expected to produce an increase in community college enrollment due to students’ inability to safely travel further from home and families’ financial situations in the current recession. Meanwhile, independent colleges facing declines in fall enrollment will need to turn to local transfer students as a source of much-needed tuition revenue. Yet, the path from community college to four-year institution is often…
Blog Post
June 5, 2020

A New Resource to Help CUNY Students Transfer Smarter

When students transfer from one college to another they frequently are unable to count their previously earned credits toward degree requirements at their new institution, jeopardizing these students’ ability to earn degrees at their new institutions. Nationally, 43 percent of credits are wasted during transfer, and students who lose that many credits are far less likely to graduate than students who are able to transfer most of their credits. The COVID-19 pandemic will exacerbate this problem. Due to…
Past Event
March 6, 2020

How to build an online global university in three weeks: webinar today

Kevin Guthrie and Catharine Bond Hill moderate this one-hour webinar on Duke Kunshan's Coronavirus Response

One month ago Duke Kunshan University made the decision to transition its courses online in response to the coronavirus outbreak in China. Online courses began just three weeks later. Teams in Kunshan and Durham worked together to quickly respond with technology and support for faculty and students. Now that other institutions worldwide are facing the prospect of campus closures and online transitions, Duke Kunshan and Duke are hosting this webinar and workshop to share some early reflections on lessons learned…
Past Event
January 27, 2020

Martin Kurzweil at the Non-Degree Credentials Research Network Meeting

On Monday, January 27, Martin Kurzweil be presenting at the Non-Degree Credentials Research Network Meeting at George Washington University in Washington DC. For more information, please see the NCRN website.    …