Community colleges serve a crucial function in California’s higher education landscape. Last year, 74,000 students transferred from community colleges to a campus in the California State University (CSU) or University of California (UC) systems. Half of all bachelor’s degrees conferred by the CSU in 2016, and one third of those by the UC, went to students who began their college careers at a two-year institution.

Despite these impressive figures, only 24% of students who intend to transfer do so within four years, and underrepresented students are less likely to transfer than their peers. Two significant barriers in the transfer and completion process are the lack of coordination between the two-year and four-year systems and the limited counseling resources available at community colleges.

In 2010, the state took an important step to address the maze of credit requirements and provide clearer guidance for students by enacting the Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act, which streamlines transfer from community colleges to CSUs by creating a new degree, the Associate’s Degree for Transfer (AD-T).

The Education Insights Center at Sacramento State University conducted a study to assess early effects of new AD-T programs on institutional policies and practices and student transfer experiences. College Futures Foundation provided a grant to support this research project.

The Ed Insights report, Trial and Error: California Students Make the Best of an Improving Yet Complex Transfer Process, finds that, four years into AD-T implementation, students still struggle to chart clear paths to transfer. Key findings include:

• Students have trouble accessing comprehensive and consistent information about the AD-T pathway.
• Many students do not fully understand AD-Ts and how they differ from other types of associate’s degrees offered by their colleges.
• Varying transfer requirements and enrollment levels across CSU campuses and programs mean that only students with the most flexibility can take advantage of the AD-T’s guarantee of admission to the CSU.

Read the report for more details and for recommendations on how California’s community colleges and four-year systems can continue to simplify and improve transfer processes.

Download the Trial and Error full report