I recently read that the Board of Regents for the City University of New York (CUNY) has approved a new policy that requires all campuses to award transfer credit for courses completed across the CUNY system. A study conducted by the University’s Office of Academic Affairs found that transfer students, especially those going from a two-year campus to a four-year campus, risked losing credits and often had to take additional credits to meet differencing graduation requirements. The new policy is meant to make the transfer process simpler and less costly.
While students might be happy, many faculty members have voiced strong opposition. Some argue that the policy limits individual campus authority and the ability for a campus to have a unique identity while still being part of the larger system.
I found this very interesting because I work with a lot of transfer students. And, though Wisconsin has a state college system, each campus has its own requirements and students sometimes find themselves “making up” credits when they switch schools. It’s not always that courses don’t count for credit across campuses (UW is pretty good about that) but they may not match the requirements of a particular program. Or, a course taken on one campus may transfer with an exact equivalent, but not the one the student anticipated. In either case, the student may have to take additional courses to cover the requirements of a different campus.
I can see why a college system would consider trying to make it more seamless.
I can see the criticism, as well. There can be good reasons for differences in course content and overall program objectives from one school to another. This allows for a school to specialize and highlight particular faculty strengths. That’s how a school earns a reputation and attracts students. They become known for certain things.
For two-year/technical schools, it is important to be able to offer applied programs that do not necessarily lead to a four-year school. If a course was not designed with transfer in mind, there is no reason to think it should count for credit in another program—unless it covers the same content in the same way.
Unfortunately, it seems like the undecided students or the ones who make significant program changes are the ones most likely to run into credit issues. Even though it can be a pain from a student perspective (I had to go an extra semester myself because of transfer credit issues) I am not sure there is a good solution. I think a fairly standard approach to help students go from a two-year college to a four-year program makes sense, but colleges still need to have a say in matters of curriculum.
