Enhancing the Community College Pathway to Engineering Careers (2005) / Chapter Skim
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2 Successful Transfer of Students to Four-Year Institutions
2 Successful Transfer of Students to Four-Year Institutions
Pages 14-29
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From page 14... ...
identify four vital elements to recruiting and retaining students in community college engineering science programs and preparing them to succeed after transfer to a four-year university: 1. An aggressive high school outreach program to attract qualified students to the engineering profession via community colleges and fouryear educational institutions.
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From page 15... ...
The majority of statewide agreements involved publicsector institutions only. Another study, Transfer and Articulation Policies, conducted by the Education Commission of the States, lists legislation, cooperative agreements, transfer data reporting, incentives and rewards, statewide articulation guides, common core curricula, and common course numbering for each state (ECS, 2001)
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From page 16... ...
Along those same lines, other speakers raised similar issues: · increasing differentiation among four-year engineering curricula · out-of-date articulation agreements · equivalency guides that do not accurately reflect changes in fouryear engineering curricula · a lack of uniformity among curricula at four-year educational institutions in the same state · infrequent communication between transfer partners · a lack of institutionalization of communication between transfer partners · a lack of formal mechanisms for reviewing curricular changes statewide · a limited ability of small community colleges to adjust to curricular changes in four-year programs · cumbersome, arbitrary credit transfer review processes of fouryear institutions where department chairs and other engineering faculty members make decisions about equivalency on a course-by-course basis The following description by a committee member illustrates some problems transfer students may confront. A community college includes Engineering Circuits I and Engineering Circuits II in its Engineering Science Transfer Program.
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From page 17... ...
Partnerships must be stable, even in the face of personnel or curricular changes The experiences described by workshop representatives of two- and four-year schools indicate that articulation agreements are necessary, but not sufficient, for seamless transfers of community college students. The committee defined a "good" transfer partnership as a "second-level articulation," that is, cooperation between the two-year and four-year colleges to recruit students into engineering.
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From page 18... ...
However, four-year institutions placed a great deal of emphasis on the gatekeeper role of their institutions; their concerns were to maintain standards and promote a uniform approach between partner institutions and to require a relatively high GPA for admission and eligibility for financial assistance. Participants at the workshop suggested several ways of enhancing the transfer mission, based on the strengths of existing articulation agreements: clear and accessible print, Web, and other resources summarizing articulation agreements and the transfer process for students and their parents; regular communication between institutional partners to keep articulation agreements current with curricular changes at four-year educational institutions; an assurance of equivalency; and support for students who transfer to four-year engineering programs.
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From page 19... ...
Equivalency Most workshop participants expressed the view that successful articulation agreements promote uniformity of curricula at two-year and four-year educational institutions. A strong articulation agreement should enable a community college to provide an engineering science course structure that is nearly identical to the lower-division engineering curriculum of its four-year partner(s)
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From page 20... ...
, for transfer students an essential component of articulation agreements; yet, many fouryear institutions do not offer scholarships or other forms of financial assistance to transfer students. In contrast, exemplary articulation agreements offer transfer students per-semester scholarships, allow students to take courses at a community college with financial aid from the four-year institution, and require a single application process and fee for partnering institutions.
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From page 21... ...
Itasca Community College and University of North Dakota Two-Year Student Transfer Program to a Four-Year Engineering Program Itasca Community College offers a unique engineering and physics program that includes classroom, laboratory, social, and residential areas in a 25,000-square-foot Learning and Living Center, aggressive recruiting efforts, intensive personal coaching to ensure retention and address students' educational and/or personal needs, block scheduling of classes, and project-based learning. From 1998 to 2002, 85 percent of Itasca's 140 students in engineering and physics transferred to four-year engineering programs, the majority at the University of North Dakota.
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From page 22... ...
and nine state universities participate in the program, which allows Georgia residents to begin their studies at any of the 14 institutions and then earn a bachelor of engineering degree at Georgia Tech (the only public engineering program in the state)
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From page 23... ...
In that same year, the engineering program was ranked first in the number of engineering degrees awarded to women and underrepresented minority students. Thus, RETP was identified by the committee as an exemplary approach to increasing diversity in engineering education, along with its exemplary approach to articulation and transfer.
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From page 24... ...
degrees in engineering; another 5 percent pursue other majors or graduate from other colleges. Evaluations of Transfer Programs Many workshop participants pointed out a need for better evaluations of transfer programs.
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From page 25... ...
The council's immediate goals include: improving communications among two-year and four-year institutions involved in engineering and engineering technology programs; coordinating engineering programs statewide; and developing personal contacts among faculty members. According to faculty members and administrators who have participated, the council is promoting a new statewide A.S.
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From page 26... ...
wcerte.org/. California Engineering Liaison Council Established in 1947, the California Engineering Liaison Council is made up of administrators, faculty members, and staff members from colleges of engineering at University of California and California State University campuses, community colleges, and independent universities and colleges.
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From page 27... ...
5. To provide a vehicle for joint action on all matters of mutual interest and benefit to engineering science programs offered by member institutions.
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From page 28... ...
The most effective agreements provide for a seamless transfer of community college students to four-year engineering programs. These agreements are also characterized by continual improvements in response to changing engineering curricula at four-year educational institutions; institutionalized partnerships between community colleges and four-year institutions; and frequent interaction and collaboration between faculties and administrators of partner institutions.
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From page 29... ...
A minority of community college representatives at the workshop argued that articulation agreements should be more flexible -- i.e., community colleges should not be expected to match their curricula exactly to four-year engineering programs. The committee concludes that greater flexibility, without compromising standards, could be achieved by ensuring that engineering pedagogy is less course driven and more outcomes based.
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