Not all transfer experiences are created equal.
So says the latest National Survey of Student Engagement, which for the first time compared data from students who had made "vertical" transfers, from community colleges to four-year institutions, and students who had made "horizontal" transfers, between four-year colleges.
"It's important that we look at these two groups as distinct populations," says Alexander C. McCormick, director of the survey. "After all, they change institutions for very different reasons and should therefore have different experiences."
The study, known as Nessie, found that both sets of transfer students tended to lag behind "native" students, as it calls those who did not transfer, in terms of campus engagement. But the horizontal-transfer students were likelier than their vertical-transfer counterparts to participate in "high impact" activities, like studying abroad, participating in internships, doing research with a faculty member, and partaking in a culminating senior experience, like a capstone course or senior seminar.
While 62 percent of native seniors said they participated in internships, for example, only 49 percent of horizontal-transfer students and 43 percent of vertical-transfer students could say the same. The biggest gap between the two populations of transfer students was found in study abroad, with only 7 percent of the vertical variety participating, compared with 15 percent of the horizontal. Twenty percent of the native students studied abroad.
Although horizontal-transfer students reported greater participation in high-impact experiences, they reported lower overall satisfaction than the other transfer students. Mr. McCormick believes that has something to do with the reasons behind their switching from one four-year institution to another.
"I think a large number of horizontal transfers are changing institutions because they were not able to succeed in making good relationships at their first college," says Mr. McCormick, who is an associate professor of education at Indiana University at Bloomington. "Some of these obstacles don't go away with a change of scenery."
That transfer students have less exposure to high-impact activities is "disappointing," according to the report. As the survey indicates, it says, those offerings do much to enrich students' education.
A Senior Experience
This year's report emphasized the importance of a culminating senior experience that "integrates and synthesizes learning within the academic major, provides opportunities to reflect on the overall college experience, and may facilitate the transition to life after college."
With responses from about 133,000 seniors, the survey found that 40 percent of native seniors had participated in such an activity, compared with 30 percent of transfer students from other four-year colleges and 25 percent from community colleges.
Eighty-five percent of faculty members considered completing a culminating senior experience important, and it's clear why. Most students who participated in a senior seminar or capstone course reported substantial personal advances in terms of making decisions based on evidence (78.5 percent), thinking critically and analytically (77.4 percent), learning effectively on their own (77.3 percent), and developing intellectual curiosity (77 percent).
The study also found that students who participated in those courses did better on benchmarks of effective educational practice, such as active and collaborative learning, level of academic challenge, student-faculty interaction, and supportive campus environment.
Those are the benchmarks that Nessie has tracked in its 10-year history. Nearly 1,400 baccalaureate colleges and universities in the United States and Canada have administered the survey at least once. And for the first time, the survey this year tracked data at a number of those institutions from 2004 to 2009. The information is divided into two categories—for first-year students and for seniors—in order, Mr. McCormick says, to compare apples to apples.
This year's survey included information about colleges that had administered the test at least four times in the past five years. While most had not seen substantial changes, some colleges had shown steady improvement in student engagement—but with a disparity between first-year students and seniors. Forty-one percent of the colleges saw positive trends among first-year students in at least one of the five benchmarks, while 28 percent saw the same among seniors.
It is difficult to know, the report says, whether the "first-year experience represents the 'low-hanging fruit' with respect to improving the undergraduate experience and is thus more amenable to improvement, or that systematic improvement efforts are more often targeted at the first-year experience."
Mr. McCormick thinks colleges tend to put more effort into first-year enhancement, as a means of improving their retention rates, than into programming for older students. He believes that when institutions do more to engage all their students, better outcomes follow.
"From the beginning," he says, "Nessie has been all about diagnosis and improvement, not data for the sake of data."
Still, some educators believe that there's still plenty of room for improvement. While 75 percent of the faculty members surveyed this year said their colleges were active in data collection, only about a third thought enough was being done with the findings.
Comments
1. 22216726 - November 09, 2009 at 10:12 am
The study of transfer students repesents but one example of the tremendous potential which NESSIE represents for American higher education and specifically...the community college.
Unfortunately, potential and reality appear to be a bit apart as institutions collect information and then fail to utilize the findings to make changes that will improve the experience for its students.
The transfer study is a good example. Perhaps more needs to be done by community colleges to adequately prepare its students for the transfer experience and the opportunities which the new academic setting might provide e.g., overseas study, capstone courses, etc. AND, the four-year college is not off the hook. Since in many four-year institutions up to 50+% of its graduates have started at another institution (usually the community college), perhaps more attention needs to be provided via orientation programs, halfway house experiences, etc. to explain and encourage the transfer student to take advantage of such opportunities. Finally, IF NESSIE and research of this nature is really going to have an impact...faculty at all institutions must become part of the change process and not pass the buck to other players in the institution.
2. ccnorm - November 09, 2009 at 11:14 am
This is not just an educational issue - students coming from community colleges are often commuting from home to a four year college, may have financial challenges or may have family responsibilities. If four year colleges count extra-curricular activities as important for engagement, they're going to have to level the playing field financially and schedule those activities at realistic times when commuters can participate. I work in a community college in Dallas and have taught at a University in the area - most of the students in area universities commute - and that is probably not untypical for students in urban universities. As for capstone courses and overseas study - get real! Is the University paying for those things???
3. joanjag - November 09, 2009 at 11:32 am
I agree with ccnorm. We try to force students to "fit into" the activities the university provides, and say they are unsuccessful if they don't participate. We need to look at the students' lives and fit our activities around them. Many students work, especially community college transfer students. How we can expect them to take 10-18 weeks off to do study abroad? Are we providing childcare at the extra-curricular activities? Are families welcome? Let's get to know our students.
4. jffoster - November 09, 2009 at 03:37 pm
Indeed, Joanjag (3). And now the "student experience" crowd and the parasitic prattlers of pedagogy are calling extracurricular activities "co-curricular" and there is talk of REQUIRING one or more "cocurricular activities" to graduate! What they want id DSDDDDS -- Dip Shit Dumbed Down Ding Dong School.
5. therealsparky09 - November 09, 2009 at 04:34 pm
I think we all knew this already. The problem is the lack of support initially for these transfer students, no matter where they come from. ASU has JUST recently included "transition students" into the New Student Orientation programming for students new to the university. The department is now "Transition and Parent Programs."
Five years ago I was a freshman and good friends with a transfer student from the local community college. I met her through what was then called Freshman Orientation. She expressed HER distaste at the lack of transfer/transition students and even presented at a conference about it on the West Coast. If we want these students to get involved, we have to find a way to make them feel like they are being supported from their first step onto campus, rather than expecting them to fill their senior year with internships, cohort programs and seminar attendance. No one wants to get involved with a school that does not reach out to their demographic. Fortunately, ASU has realized that and is building on it. Hopefully more schools that haven't yet caught onto this trend will do so expediently.
6. danb65 - November 10, 2009 at 12:50 pm
therealsparky09 has got it right. Having started my educatoinal process in a community college, after getting out of the Army, I transfered to a state university in the next city, and the first thing I was made to understand is that transfers are tolerated (by State Law)but not really welcome( this is our school,not yours)Even some of the Professors activly encouraged us new transfers to withdraw, "because we were not really part of the community/school".On top of that, being prior service military(this was in the 1980's/Reagan years)I felt like the new guy in the hardest prison block in the world.
To this day most major universities, and some minor ones, still practice this subtle discrimination of transfer students.
7. millsa - November 11, 2009 at 02:37 pm
I too first received my associate's degree at a community college before moving onto a four year university. While I greatly enjoyed my experience at the four-year university, and had a welcoming experience overall, I felt that transfer students as a population were sometimes ignored in campus programming. Fortunately in classes I was able to establish great relationships with my professors.
However, the transfer student orientation offered only about a third of what the freshman student orientation involved, and the majority of intitial activities on campus to encourage socializing were aimed at the freshman population. Transfer students were largely left out of the equation.
Furthermore because transfer students have a smaller amount of time to take advantage of all of the opportunities on campus i.e. internships, research positions and study abroad, the student either has to do an incredible amount of self-motivated research and planning to make those things happen or be well-advised. This obviously has an impact on transfer student participation in campus offerings. Readily available information and well-designed advising sessions for transfer students can help alleviate the disparity between "native" student and transfer student participation.
8. tac3017874742 - November 11, 2009 at 09:16 pm
From my experience in supporting and organizing new student orientation sessions at 2-year and 4-year public higher education institutions in 6 distinct institutions in three countries (i.e., USA, Canada, and the UAE) these sessions need very strong input from students who have made the transfer journey themselves. They are the peole who know what is needed in support of these transfer students and they should be active players in the design and delivery of orientation sessions for transfer students. Each institution is unique and each transfer student is also unique in their makeup and care must be taken to offer as many options in the program as are necessary to cover these needs. Some of the assumptions made by institution regarding new students are aimed at the 'traditional' student and may not apply to the transfer student. Evaluation of these programs needs to be carefully designed and administered and actions need to be taken to modify the transfer student orientation (i.e., both short term and long term types of programs) in order to improve the effectiveness of these important programs. The other really important issue is the need to supply appropriate funding to these programs so that they are well designed and delivered. There is no easy to provide effective programs of this type and changes in the student transfer population needs to be measured from year to year in order to keep up with their changing needs.
Experienced student services leader.